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Housing  Report 

TO 

The  Newark  City  Plan  Commission 


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GIFT 

OF 

Newark  has  been  constantly  adding  to  the  number  and  area  of  its  parks  for 
the  last  15  years.     This  shows  some  of  the  fine  trees  in  Weequahic  Park. 


There    are    many    homes    like    this    in    the    city,    miles    of    streets    being    lined 
with   them    at   both   the   north   end   and    in   the   southwest. 


HOUSING  REPORT 


TO 


THE  CITY  PLAN  COMMISSION 

OF    NEWARK,  N.  J. 


BY 


E.  P.  GOODRICH  AND  GEORGE  B.  FORD 


REPORT  MADE  FOR  MR.  GOODRICH  AND  MR.  FORD  BY 
DR.  JAMES  FORD,  OF    HARVARD  UNIVERSITY 


NEWARK,  N.  J.: 

PRESS  OF  MATTHIAS  PLUM 

1913 


*  -a? 


«  .  •  " 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTION  Page 

THE;  PEOPLE  AND  THEIR  HOMES 1-  4 

The  Conditions 
Scope  of  the  Investigation 
Districts  Intensively  Studied 
Supplementary  Sources  . 

CHAPTER  I. 
PROBLEM   OF  HOUSING  IN  NEWARK 

SECTION      I.— HOUSING  AND  PUBUC  WELFARE .-.      5-  8 

Definition 

Housing  and  Public  Health 

Housing  and  Public  Safety 

Housing  and  Morality 

Housing  and  Efficiency 

Housing  and  Democracy 

The  Housing  Problems  of  Newark — 

Contrasted  with  Other  Cities 
SECTION    II.— SPECIFIC  HOUSING  PROBLEMS 8-19 

Dark  Rooms,  Dark  Halls  and  Tuberculosis 

Basement  Dwellings 

Disposal  of  Body  Wastes 

Water  Supply 

Stables 

Disposal  of  Household  Refuse  and  Garbage 

Repair  of  Dwellings  and  Cleanliness 

The  Habits  of  Tenants 

Overcrowding  of  Rooms 
SECTION  III— THE  FIRE  PROBLEM 19-24 

Within  the  Fire  Limits 

Outside  the  Fire  Limits 

Frame  Dwellings 

Frame  Tenements 

Brick  Tenements 

The  Fire  Risk 

Fire  Escapes 

CHAPTER  II. 
LEGISLATION  AND  THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM 

SECTION      I.— GENERAL  STATEMENT 25-26 

Inadequacy  of  Existing  Restriction 
,     The  Justification  of  Public  Interference 
iii 


Page 

SECTION    II. — EXISTING  HOUSING  LEGISLATION  IN  NEWARK 26-28 

Scope  of  Present  Codes 
New  Jersey  Tenement  House  Act 
Relation  of  Local  Codes  to  State  Act 
Limits  of  the  Various  Codes 

SECTION  III.— RECOMMENDED  CHANGES  IN  TENEMENT  HOUSE  LAW -..    28-38 

The  Need 

Definition  of  Tenement  House 

Percentage  of  Lot  Covered 

Height 

Yards 

Courts 

Vent  Shafts 

Fire  Provisions 

Combustible  Roofs 

Frame  Buildings 

Fire  Escapes 

Windows 

Size  of  Rooms 

Crowding  and  Air  Space 

Dark  Halls 

Cellars 

Water  Closets 

Water  Supply 

Why  Such  Changes  Should  Be  Made  Preferably  in 
the  Tenement  House  Act 

Changes  Should  Be  Made  Cautiously 
SECTION  IV. — RECOMMENDED  CHANGES  IN  BUILDING  CODE 38-39 

General  Recommendations 

Specific  Recommendations 
SECTION    V.— RECOMMENDED  CHANGES  IN  SANITARY  CODE 39-40 

General  Recommendations 

Specific  Recommendations 

CHAPTER  III. 

ENFORCEMENT  OF  HOUSING  LAWS 

SECTION     I. — THE  NEED 41 

SECTION    II. — STATE  BOARD  OF  TENEMENT  HOUSE  SUPERVISION 41-44 

General  Statement 

Penalty  Clause 

Sections  182-184 

Sections  185-188 

Aid  of  the  Courts 

Inadequate  Appropriation 

iv 


Page 

SECTION  III.— THE  BUILDING  DEPARTMENT 44-46 

General  Recommendations 
Fire  Limits 

More  Inspectors  Necessary 
Danger  in  Board  of  Appeals 
Political  Favors 

SECTION  IV.— THE  BOARD  OF  HEALTH 46-49 

Susceptibility  to  Popular  Demand 

Small  Proportion  of  Public  Funds  Spent  on 

Prevention 

Mortality  and  Bad  Housing 
'  More  Inspectors  Needed 
More  Records  Needed 

Investigation  of  Origin  of  Infectious  Diseases 
Inadequacy  of  Amount  and  Enforcement  of 

Penalties 
Conclusions 

CHAPTER  IV. 
THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  AND  REPLANNING  OLD  DISTRICTS 

INTRODUCTION 50 

General  Statement 

SECTION      I.— THE   SLUMS 50 

Methods  of  Treatment  of  Unsanitary  Areas 

SECTION    II.— SLUM  CLEARANCE  AND  MUNICIPAL  REHOUSING 51-52 

Municipal  Housing 

Why  English  Examples  Do  Not  Pay 

Municipal  Housing  Not  Expedient  in  America 

SECTION  III. — ELIMINATION  OF  SLUMS  BY  TAXATION 52-53 

Taxation  of  Unearned  Increment  and  Its  Effect 
Taxation  of  Land  Values  and  Its  Effect 

SECTION  IV.— OPENING  UP  SLUMS  TO  COMMERCE 53-54 

Augusta  Street  Area,  Newark 

Landers  Alley  Area,  Newark 
SECTION    V.— STREET  EXTENSION  AND  WIDENING 54 

CHAPTER  V. 

THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  AND  CITY  PLANNING  OF 
NEW  AREAS 

SECTION      I. — THE  BEST  TYPE  OF  HOUSING 55-56 

The  Tenement 
The  Cottage 


Page 
SECTION    II. — MEANS  OF  PROMOTING  SUBURBAN  HOUSING 56-59 

General  Statement 

Transit  and  Radial  Streets 

Co-operating  with  Surrounding  Towns 

Methods  of  Discouraging  Tenement  Building 

Building  and  Loan  Associations 
SECTION  III.— THE  ZONE  SYSTEM 59-64 

Tenements  in  Residential  Districts 

Introduction  of  Tenements  Upon  Consent  of 
Neighbors 

German  Zone  System 

The  Existing  Building  Districts  of  Newark 

The  Wooden  Three  Decker 

The  Two  Family  House 

The  Application  of  the  Zone  System  to  Newark 

The  Factory  Zone 
SECTION  IV. — MOVING  THE  FACTORIES  OUT 64-65 

The  Advantages 

The  Industrial  Community 

Possible  Only  with  Incorporation  of  Suburbs 
SECTION    V.— REDUCING  THE  COST  OF  HOUSE  LOTS 65-67 

The  Cost  of  Suburban  Land 

Municipal  Land  Ownership 

Co-operative  Development  of  Land 

The  Land  Tax 

Reducing  the  Cost  of  Residential  Streets 
SECTION  VI. — REDUCING  COST  OF  HOUSES 68 

Reducing  Cost  of  Cottage  Construction 
SECTION  VII. — LOT  UNITS  AND  HOUSING 68-72 

Existing  Size  and  Shape  of  Lots  in  Newark 

Types  Used  in  Recent  Subdivisions  in  Newark 

Disadvantages  of  Uniform  Type 

Recommended  Suburban  Street  and  Lot  Planning 

Recommended  Type  near  Factories 

Suburban  Lots  Wider  and  Shallower 

How  to  Make  the  Above  Pay 

CONCLUSION 

SECTION      I.— MUNICIPAL  CONTROL  OF  HOUSING  AND  CITY  PLANNING....    73-74 

Need  of  a  Permanent  City  Plan  Commission 

Example  of  Europe 

American  Examples 
SECTION    II. — CO-OPERATION  OF  PRIVATE  BODIES 74-75 

Existing  Co-operation 

Examples  of  Cleveland  and  Boston 

What  Newark  Can  Do 

vi 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


SCENE  IN  WEEQUAHIC  PARK Facing  Title 

ONE  OF  MANY  FINE  HOMES 

OUTLINE  MAP  OF^NEWARK,  SHOWING  SWAMPS,  PARKS,  SCHOOLS 

AND  TROLLEY  LINES Facing  Page  1 

OUTLINE  MAP,  SHOWING  CONGESTED  AREA  AND  ALSO  REGION 

STILL  AVAILABLE  FOR  HOMES- "  5 

OUTLINE  MAP,  SHOWING  RESIDENCE  SECTIONS  OF  CITY "  "  7 

FLASH  LIGHT  OF  DARK  ROOM  ON  — STREET "  "  9 

CELLAR  DWELLING  OF  THREE  ROOMS  ON  -          -  STREET "  "  9 

TYPES  OF  TWO-FAMILY  HOUSES "  "  24 

STREET  OF  HOMES,  HOUSES  OCCUPIED  BY  OWNERS "  "  24 

SIX-FAMILY  HOUSES,  UGLY  AND  INFLAMMABLE "  "  26 

Row  OF  NEW-LAW  TENEMENTS,  FOUR  STORIES  HIGH "  "  30 

YARD  AT  REAR  OF STREET "  "  32 

VACANT  LOT  BEING  FILLED  WITH  GARBAGE "  "  34 

UNSANITARY  HOUSES  NEAR  THE  COURT  HOUSE "  "  34 

INTERIOR  OF  BLOCK  BOUNDED  BY  SIX-FAMILY  HOUSES "  "  38 

Two  CITY  BLOCKS,  LARGELY  NEW-LAW  TENEMENTS L  "  "  38 

YARD  OF  NEGRO  TENEMENT  ON STREET "  "  50 

ATTRACTIVE  SPOT  IN  A  RESIDENTIAL  SECTION "  "  55 

WELL-KEPT  GARDEN  IN  REAR  OF  —    STREET "  "  55 

HOUSE  AT STREET,  POSSIBLE  ALTERNATIVE  FOR  TENE- 
MENT HOUSE "  "  63 

ATTRACTIVE  HOUSES  IN  VAILSBURG "  67 

A  PRETTY  SPOT  IN  A  NEWER  PART  OF  THE  CITY "  "  71 

WRETCHED  CONDITIONS  NEAR  THE  BELLEVILLE  LINE "  "  71 


vn 


Shows  how  large  a  part  of  the  city's  area  is  unoccupied  swamp  or 
meadow;  how  numerous  and  well  scattered  are  the  Parks  (indicated  by 
diagonal  ruling);  the  distribution  of  school  houses  (shown  by  black  squares), 
and  the  main  line  of  the  trolley  system.  This  last  is  to  be  greatly  improved 
as  soon  as  extensions  planned  can  be  carried  out. 


INTRODUCTION 


The  People  and  Their  Homes. 

Newark  is  a  city  of  347,469  inhabitants  (1910).  It  is  primar- 
ily an  industrial  city.  The  thirteenth  U.  S.  Census  shows  Newark 
to  be  the  14th  city  in  population  and  the  llth  city  in  value  of 
manufactured  products  in  the  Union.  Its  chief  industries  are 
leather,  malt  liquors,  jewelry,  machinery,  hats,  chemicals,  var- 
nishes and  stoves.  It  is  therefore  a  city  with  a  large  skilled  work- 
ing class — mainly  the  children  of  German  and  English  immi- 
grants— stable,  industrious,  conservative.  The  foreign-born, 
whose  intelligence  and  standards  of  living  are  usually  lower, 
constitute  only  thirty  per  cent,  of  the  population.  The  perma- 
nent, thrifty,  home-owning  element  of  the  population — essential 
to  the  creation  of  prosperous  industry  and  stable,  efficient  govern- 
ment and  social  institutions — is  peculiarly  large,  of  which  fact 
a  membership  of  65,000  in  local  building  and  loan  associations, 
(representing  considerably  over  half  of  the  families  of  the  city),  is 
an  eloquent  witness. 

The  homes  of  Newark  are  mostly  built  upon  the  hills,  which 
are  of  easy  grade.  The  residence  streets  of  the  well-to-do  of  a 
generation  ago  are  broad,  with  old  stately  trees,  broad  lawns 
and  large  detached  brick  dwellings  of  marked  dignity.  The 
capitalists  of  today  have  built  attractive  homes  of  English  or 
Colonial  types,  set  well  back  from  the  street  and  from  neighbor- 
ing dwellings  and  well  maintained. 

The  homes  of  skilled  workingmen,  clerks,  and  small  shop- 
keepers and  one-family,  two-family  and  three-family  houses  are 
usually  built  of  wood  and  are  in  general  well  kept  and  whole- 
some. Back  yards  are  deep,  leaving  a  large  open  space  in  the 
interior  of  each  block  for  the  penetration  of  air  and  sunshine, 
with  fruit  trees,  vines  and  flowers, 'and  the  open  spaces  give  a 
suburban  character  even  to  the  homes  near  the  heart  of  the  city. 

The  laboring  class,  chiefly  the  foreign-born,  live  largely  in 
detached  two  and  three-family  houses.  The  few  streets  of  large 
tenement  houses  are  occupied  almost  solely  by  this  part  of  the 
population.  These,  as  they  acquire  wealth,  build  new  tenement 
or  suburban  homes. 

The  streets  of  the  city  are  well  paved  and  drained.  The 
Shade  Tree  Commission,  which  has  achieved  a  national  reputa- 


THE  \\sir ARK  CITY  PLAN  COMMISSION 


tion  for  its  campaign  of  public  education  in  care  of  trees,  cares 
for  60,000  trees  and  adds  several  thousand  new  trees  each  year 
to  beautify  the  streets  of  the  city.  Two  attractive  county  pafjfcs 
are  maintained  within  the  city,  accessible  to  residence  districts 
of  all  classes.  Minor  parks  and  playgrounds,  having  a  total  area 
with  the  above  of  3,833  acres,  are  maintained  at  frequent  inter- 
vals, rendering  a  natural  play  place  readily  available  to  adults 
and  children  of  the  residence  districts. 

The  Conditions. 

In  modern  cities  of  the  size  of  Newark  a  housing  problem  is 
invariably  present.  Housing  conditions  vary  very  decidedly  in 
different  quarters  of  such  cities ;  there  are  unsanitary  buildings 
that  are  relics  of  the  building  fashions  of  previous  generations ; 
there  are  probably  unsanitary  buildings  of  modern  construction 
as  well.  Each  older  American  city  has  its  blighted  districts  and 
its  growing  districts.  A  large  city  usually  has  several  tenement 
districts,  each  with  an  individuality  of  its  own ;  there  are  ordi- 
narily one  or  more  quarters  containing  the  luxurious  homes  and 
large  estates  of  the  more  prosperous  citizens,  and  many  isolated 
districts  of  one  or  two-family  houses,  of  tenements  converted 
from  single  family  residences,  and  of  high  block  dwellings. 

Scope  of  the  Investigation. 

Newark  has  had  no  comprehensive  housing  investigation 
made  during  the  past  decade,  hence  it  was  necessary  to  devote 
a  large  percentage  of  the  five  weeks'  time  allotted  for  prepara- 
tion of  this  report  to  a  careful  examination  of  the  existing 
housing  conditions  in  old  and  new  quarters  of  the  city.  The 
records  of  the  State  Tenement  House  Department  and  of  local 
health  and  building  departments  proved  to  be  of  considerable 
value.  But  as  they  were  not  adequately  up-to-date  and  thorough, 
it  proved  necessary  to  make  an  intensive  house-to-house  investi- 
gation of  selected  districts  in  various  parts  of  the  city.  A  study 
of  this  sort  had  been  contemplated  by  the  Housing  Committee 
of  the  Public  Welfare  Committee  of  Essex  County.  Hence  in 
co-operation  with  that  body  the  writer  undertook  to  supervise  a 
house-to-house  canvass  of  five  selected  city  blocks.  For  this 
purpose  the  services  of  Mr.  Herman  Copeland  were  secured 
through  the  courtesy  of  Mr.  Carol  Aronovici,  Director  of  the 
Bureau  of  Social  Research  of  Providence,  R.  L,  and  also  the  ser- 
vices of  Miss  Udetta  D.  Brown,  a  graduate  student  in  the  New 
York  School  of  Philanthropy,  through  the  kindness  of  Miss 
Headley,  Director  of  the  Tenement  House  Committee  of  the 


INTRODUCTION  3 


Charity  Organization  Society  of  New  York.  Miss  Brown's 
report,  which  treats  in  a  sympathetic  but  careful  manner  the 
more  intimate  human  problems  of  two  Italian  blocks,  has  been 
separately  compiled,  and  a  copy  is  submitted  with  this  report. 

Districts  Intensively  Studied. 

The  districts  chosen  were  as  follows :  First,  the  block 
bounded  by  Springfield  Avenue  and  Shipman,  Augusta  and 
Arlington  Streets,  including  Landers  Alley.  This  block  con- 
tained 322  persons,  of  whom  77,  chiefly  Germans,  lived  on  Spring- 
field Avenue ;  76  of  various  nationalities  lived  on  Arlington 
Street ;  65,  largely  Negroes  but  including  four  other  nationalities, 
lived  on  Augusta  Street;  82,  including  seven  nationalities,  lived 
on  Shipman  Street ;  and  22,  chiefly  Germans,  lived  on  Lan- 
ders Alley.  This  district  was  chosen  to  offer  an  extreme  example 
of  bad  housing  conditions  in  old  buildings. 

The  second  district,  bounded  by  Prince  Street,  Waverly 
Avenue,  Broome  and  Spruce  Streets,  was  chosen  because  it  con- 
tained a  large  number  of  tenement  houses  built  under  the  pres- 
ent Tenement  House  Act  of  New  Jersey.  The  block  contains, 
however,  a  large  number  of  three-story  frame  tenements,  mostly 
©i-cold  construction,  and  of  converted  houses.  The  block  con- 
tained in  all  1,285  persons,  of  whom  792  lived  on  Prince  Stree.t-ancl 
252  on  Broome  Street,  leaving  only  58  on  Waverly  Avenue  and 
183  on  Spruce.  The  large  majority  of  families  were  Jewishv('226 
out  of  248)  ;  there  were,  however,  11  colored  families,  3  German, 
3  Polish,  1.  Hungarian,  and  4  unrecorded  (probably  Jewish). 
Only  48  of  the  248  families  took  lodgers,  so  the  problem  of  room 
overcrowding  in  this  district  is  very  largely  a  problem  of  crowd- 
ingp/kpirge  families  in  small  apartments.  Sanitary  appliances  in 
th'is  district  were  very  largely  of  modern  types;  there  is  some 
lot  congestion,  both  because  new  buildings  cover  an  excessive 
percentage  of  the  land  and  because  of  older  rear  buildings  on 
several  lots. 

The  third  block  chosen  is  in  the  Island  district,  bounded 
by  Joseph,  Esther,  Albert  Streets  and  Euclid  Avenue.  There 
are  houses  on  only  two  of  these  four  streets,  Joseph  and  Esther. 
One  of  these  is  a  six-family  house,  one  a  three-family  house,  and 
the  rest  are  all  two-story  buildings  placed  about  three  feet  six 
inches  apart  on  the  average,  each  with  four  or  more  rooms. 
Thirteen  of  these  two-story  buildings  are  occupied  by  one  family 
only ;  nine  are  occupied  by  two  families ;  twelve  families  own 
their  own  homes.  There  were  24  families  of  Poles,  8  of  Slavs, 
1  German,  1  English,  and  4  Irish ;  the  total  number  of  persons 
in  the  block  was  206.  Twelve  of  the  apartments  in  a  three-story 


4 THE  NEWARK  CITY  PLAN  COMMISSION 

multiple  frame  tenement  house  in  the  next  block  on  Albert 
Street,  were  studied.  This  building  contains  36  apartments,  each 
with  two  dark  rooms,  and  served  by  piazza  toilets,  which  were  in 
very  bad  repair.  The  twelve  families  visited  in  this  building 
were  Polish. 

A  part  of  a  large  block  on  Eighth  Avenue  was  studied.  All 
of  the  apartments  on  the  south  side  of  Eighth  Avenue  between 
Nesbitt  and  Sheffield  Streets  were  examined.  This  block  con- 
tained frame  houses  for  one  or'  two  families,  frame  tenements 
and  brick  tenements,  80%  of  the  houses  containing  three  or 
more  families.  In  all  there  were  101  apartments  visited,  chiefly 
of  Italians.  In  the  same  block  Nassau  Place  was  examined, 
which  contains  a  two-story  frame  multiple  building.  The  ten- 
ants are  chiefly  Negroes,  but  there  were  Italians  in  a  few  of  the 
apartments.  Nassau  Place  lacks  dark  and  gloomy  rooms  and  is 
provided  with  in-door  toilets,  thus  differing  from  the  conditions 
of  the  neighboring  street,  Eighth  Avenue.  But  it  suffers  from 
the  evils  almost  invariably  evident  in  alley  communities — bad 
repair,  uncleanliness,  and  perhaps  also  immorality. 

The  last  district  lies  in  the  Silver  Lake  neighborhood, 
bounded  by  North  Eighth  Street,  Delavan  Avenue,  North  Ninth 
Street,  and  Chester  Avenue.  The  block  contains  only  14  houses 
and  was  chosen  in  order  to  ascertain  the  problems  of  newly 
built  communities.  Twelve  of  these  houses  are  occupied  by 
owners,  mostly  Italians.  The  district  suffers  chiefly  from  munici- 
pal neglect,  especially  in  disposal  of  refuse.  Even  in  this  out- 
lying quarter  there  were  three  instances  of  room-overcrowding. 

Supplementary  Sources. 

This  intensive  study  of  housing  conditions  in  selected  quar- 
ters was  supplemented  by  inspection  of  houses  bad  and  good  in 
various  quarters  of  the  city  in  company  with  the  sanitary  in- 
spectors of  the  Board  of  Health.  Some  aid  was  obtained  also 
from  use  of  the  records  of  the  Anti-Tuberculosis  Association  and 
other  private  bodies.  Acknowledgment  should  be  made  to  the 
Board  of  Tenement  House  Supervision,  the  Newark  Department 
of  Health,  and  to  the  Newark  Superintendent  of  Buildings  for 
free  access  to  their  records  and  for  their  ready  assistance  in  all 
phases  of  this  investigation. 


C    indicates    congested    area    close    to    the    business    and    traffic    centre    (the 

black   spot). 

D  D  is  the  large  region  to  the  northwest,  west  and  southwest,  lying 
partly  in  and  partly  outside  the  city  limits,  available  for  homes  of  moderate 
cost.  It  is  nearly  all  high  and  well  drained,  and  traversed,  as  shown 
by  trolley  lines.  Only  a  very  small  part  of  this  large  suburban  area  is  as 
yet  built  up. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  PROBLEM  OF  HOUSING  IN  NEWARK 

SECTION   I— HOUSING  AND   PUBLIC  WELFARE. 

Definition. 

A  housing"  problem  may  be  said  to  exist  wherever  any  por- 
tion of  a -population  dwells  under  conditions  dangerous  to  health, 
safety  or  morality.  The  problem  is  present  to  some  degree  in 
every  American  city.  It  is  usually  occasioned  primarily  by  the 
lack  of  guidance  in  urban  growth,  by  poor  planning  of  buildings, 
faulty  construction  and  defective  sanitation ;  it  is  aggravated  by 
the  greed  of  some  landlords,  the  carelessness  of  some  tenants  and 
ignorance. of  the  laws  of  hygiene  on  the  part  of  both.  The  result 
of  bad  housing  is  ill  health,  both  physical  and  moral,  and  thereby 
industrial  inefficiency,  unemployment,  and  a  long  chain  of  pre- 
ventable social  maladies,  which  are  very  costly  to  the  com- 
munity, and  which  place  a  heavy  handicap  upon  individual  and 
social  achievement. 

Housing  and  Public  Health. 

Man's  dwelling  exerts  a  marked  influence  upon  his  life  and 
character.  From  one-third  to  one-half  his  time  and  much  more 
than  half  of  the  time  of  women  and  children  is  spent  in  the  home. 
Bad  housing  conditions  affect  health  insidiously  by  slowly  under- 
mining the  vitality  and  thus  rendering  the  individual  susceptible 
to  disease.  But  bad  housing  conditions  also  constitute  an  en- 
vironment favorable  to  the  life  and  multiplication  of  the  bacilli 
of  a  number  of  diseases.  For  example,  the  germ  of  pulmonary 
tuberculosis  can  live  for  years  in  a  dark,  damp,  ill-ventilated  and 
ill-kept  environment,  in  other  words,  in  basement  dwellings,  in 
dark  halls  and  dark  chambers.  The  bacillus  of  typhoid  fever  may 
not  only  be  conveyed  through  the  water  or  milk  supply  of  a  city, 
but  it  may  also  be  carried  by  flies  and  vermin  from  the  filth  in 
which  it  was  deposited  to  the  food  of  urban  households.  Thus 
a  city  with  an  unsanitary  water  supply  or  with  manure  pits  and 
garbage  pails  uncovered  in  which  the  fly  may  breed  and  privies 
in  which  the  bacillus  may  be  picked  up  is  an  environment  favor- 
able to  the  spread  of  typhoid  fever.  The  tenement  house,  with 
its  halls,  stairs  and  water-closets  shared  by  many  families,  be- 
comes a  sort  of  clearing-house  of  the  contagious  diseases — scarlet 


6  THE  XEIVARK  CITY  PLAN  COMMISSION 

fever,  measles,  etc.  The  common  water-closet  may  become  the 
source  of  spread  of  venereal  disease.  The  indiscriminate  over- 
crowding of  sleeping  rooms  by  both  sexes  may  result  in  the 
spread  of  the  same  diseases  and  also  in  an  undermining  of  the 
health  of  adolescents  and  adults  through  neurasthenia  and 
other  diseases  which  over-stimulation  of  sexual  instinct  and  its 
unsatisfactory  fulfillment  may  occasion. 

Housing  and  Public  Safety. 

The  safety  of  an  urban  population  is  in  many  ways  affected 
by  housing  conditions.  The  overcrowding  of  lots  with  buildings 
erected  of  combustible  material  creates  a  serious  conflagration 
risk,  especially  where  buildings  are  of  frame  exterior  or  are  used 
both  as  stores  and  dwellings,  as  is  common'in  our  large  American 
cities.  Fire  escapes  reduce  the  danger  to  tenants  from  fire,  but 
improperly  constructed  fire  escapes  constitute  a  new  risk  from 
accident.  The  presence  of  stores,  bakeries  and  workshops  in 
non-fireproof  tenement  houses,  the  storage  of  combustible  ma- 
terials,— rags,  paints,  etc.,  the  encumbrance  of  fire-escapes,  the 
proximity  of  railroads  and  manufacture  of  explosives,  affect  in 
varying  degree  the  safety  of  the  tenant. 

Housing  and  Morality. 

Intimately  dependent  upon  the  housing  conditions  is  the 
morality  of  the  population.  'The  crowding  of  rooms  with  three 
or  more  members  of  a  family,  children  of  both  sexes  sleeping 
together  or  with  parents,  and  the  presence  of  lodgers  within  the 
tenement  make  impossible  the  maintenance  of  high  standards  of 
personal  decency.  Premature  knowledge  of  sex  functions  by 
the  children  is  the  inevitable  result  of  overcrowding  and  often 
morbid  stimulation  of  sex  instincts,  sex-perversion  and  vice 
originate  in  this  room  congestion.  Yet  indiscriminate  crowding 
of  sleeping  rooms  prevails  very  widely  within  the  immigrant 
population  groups  of  our  cities.  The  dark  halls  and  common 
toilets  add  to  the  menace  for  the  growing  children  of  the  tene- 
ments, and  frequently  the  presence  of  commercialized  vice  within 
residence  quarters  familiarizes  the  child  with  the  worst  element 
of  our  civilization  before  the  child's  mind  is  far  enough  developed 
to  resist  the  superficial  allurement. 

Housing  and  Efficiency. 

A  general  reduction  of  vitality,  or  disease  of  any  sort  ac- 
quired through  residence  under  conditions  above  described  re- 
sults necessarily  in  reduction  of  industrial  efficiency.  Disease 


M    marks    Newark's    region   of   homes   of   people   of   moderate    incomes;    while 
B   B   B  mark  regions  of  expensive  and   high  grade  residences. 


HOUSING  AND  PUBLIC  WELFARE 


causes  absence  from  work,  which  means  reduced  earnings,  in- 
creased expenditures  and,  perhaps,  also  a  long  period  of  unem- 
ployment before  new  work  is  found.  In  extreme  examples  a  state 
of  mind  which  has  been  termed  the  "slum  disease"  is  apparent 
in  which  individuals  have  become  chronically  indifferent  and 
careless  because  they  have  found  themselves  unable  to  cope 
effectively  with  an  always  depressing  environment;  the  serious 
effect  of  this  attitude  of  mind  upon  industrial  output  is  obvious. 

Housing  and  Democracy. 

It  is  impossible  to  create  a  high  civilization  in  a  democracy 
where  a  large  portion  of  the  population  must  exert  its  entire  life 
in  struggling  against  destructive  environmental  conditions.  The 
body  is  the  tool  of  both  mind  and  soul.  A  healthy  body  is  the 
first  requisite  of  the  moral  life.  An  individual  can  contribute 
little  to  the  promotion  of  general  well-being  until  rid  of  the 
weakness  or  pain,  which  ill  health  causes.  An  essential  pre- 
requisite of  efficient  democracy  is  a  healthful  home  life  with 
elimination  of  all  the  destructive  elements  now  present  in  our 
slums  and  with  the  positive  presence  of  the  constructive  ele- 
ments, sanitation,  safety,  ventilation,  sunlight,  space,  privacy 
and  beauty. 

The   Housing  Problems  of  Newark — Contrasted  with   Other 

Cities. 

A  careful  study  of  the  housing  conditions  in  American  cities 
shows  that  many  of  the  housing  problems  which  are  serious  in 
other  urban  communities  scarcely  exist  at  all  in  Newark.  For  ex- 
ample, Newark,  unlike  New  York  and  Boston,  is  not  cursed  with 
extensive  congestion  of  buildings  upoji  lots.  There  is  scarcely 
a  block  in  the  city  in  which  rooms  having  direct  exposure  to  the 
yard  or  street  cannot  obtain  adequate  light  and  air.  The  problem 
of  the  narrow  street  bordered  by  high  tenement  houses,  which 
is  prevalent  in  Boston  and  in  many  French  and  Italian  cities,  is 
almost  absent  in  Newark.  The  problem  of  public  alleys,  which 
afflicts  Milwaukee  and  many  middle  western  cities,  is  not  im- 
portant in  Newark,  though  a  few  alleys  are  to  be  found  in  the 
older  parts  of  the  city.  The  problem  of  ill-ventilated  and  ill- 
lighted  alley  houses,  built  with  but  a  single  exposure, — a  problem 
which  harasses  the  cities  of  Philadelphia  and  Montreal — is  not 
present  in  Newark.  Privy  vaults  and  surface  drainage,  which 
for  years  have  plagued  the  health  and  the  senses  of  sight  and 
smell  in  the  city  of  Baltimore,  have  ceased  to  exist  to  any  very 


8  THE  NEWARK  CITY  PLAN  COMMISSION 

serious  extent  in  the  heart  of  Newark,  though  present  in  several 
districts.  The  use  of  one-room  apartments  by  whole  families, 
which  is  widespread  in  Berlin  and  London,  and  is  spreading  in 
Chicago  and  other  American  cities,  is  apparently  not  widely 
prevalent  in  Newark. 

SECTION   II— SPECIFIC   HOUSING  PROBLEMS. 
Dark  Rooms,  Dark  Halls  and  Tuberculosis. 

Though  fortunate  in  the  absence  of  the  problems  already 
mentioned,  Newark  suffers  today  from  many  unhealthful  con- 
ditions in  residence  quarters.  Of  these  conditions  the  preval- 
ence of  dark  rooms  is  particularly  urgent.  Previous  to  the  en- 
actment of  the  Tenement  House  Act  many  large  tenement 
houses  and  frame  dwellings  were  built  with  windowless  rooms : 
halls  were  often  constructed  without  windows ;  frame  dwellings 
were  built  close  to  the  lot  line,  so  that  even  though  windows 
were  cut  in  the  side  walls,  the  rooms  were  not  adequately  lighted 
or  ventilated.  Not  only  tenement  houses  but  one  and  two-family 
houses  were  of  this  construction,  and  are  to  be  found  in  all  the 
older  sections  of  the  city.  In  visiting  at  random  about  forty 
addresses  at  which  there  have  been  two  or  more  cases  of  tuber- 
culosis *  since  the  year  1910,  I  found  dark  or  very  gloomy  rooms 
in  a  majority  of  cases.  A  more  careful  canvass  should  be  made 
of  all  such  houses,  many  of  which  are  not  tenement  houses,  and 
therefore  not  covered  by  the  records  of  the  Tenement  House  De- 
partment. Such  investigation  would  reveal  to  every  thinking 
citizen  the  intimate  relation  of  housing  conditions  and  disease. 

The  following  examples  may  be  mentioned :  At  No.  —  Sev- 
enth Avenue,  in  which  two  rooms  have  windows  upon  a  narrow 
shaft,  there  were  two  cases  of  tuberculosis  in  the  year  1911.  At 
No.  —  Cutler  Street,  which  also  has  a  record  of  two  cases  of 
tuberculosis,  one  room  in  each  two-room  suite  receives  only  the 
meagre  light  from  the  four-story  airshaft.  At  No.  -  -  Bowery 
Street,  there  are  two  dark  rooms  to  each  interior  apartment.  At 
No.  —  Prince  Street  (See  photograph  11589),  will  be  found  an 
old  tenement  of  the  ''railroad"  type,  five  rooms  deep  with  but 
one  small  shaft  for  lighting  two  of  the  interior  rooms,  the  third 

'There  is  no  official  record  of  the  heredity  or  the  occupations  of  these  cases,  hence 
no  allowance  is  here  made  for  hereditary  predisposition  to  tuberculosis  nor  for  the 
industrial  causes  of  the  disease.  The  records  of  the  Anti-Tuberculosis  Association  of 
Newark  for  the  third  year  (1911)  show  that  of  697  living  cases  dealt  with,  305  had  some 
tuberculosis  in  the  family;  310  did  not,  while  82  were  uncertain.  Only  120  lived  in 
houses  where  a  death  from  tuberculosis  has  occurred  within  the  past  nine  years.  There 
may,  however,  have  been  living  cases  in  these  houses  within  that  period;  172  lived  in 
one  and  two-family  houses,  293  in  tenements,  42  in  furnished  rooms,  19  in  lodging 
houses,  2  in  boarding  houses  and  51  lived  out  of  town  or  were  unaccounted  for. 


Flash-light  photograph  of  a  dark  room  on  Street.  This  build- 
ing is  in  very  bad  repair  and  contains  dark  rooms  on  every  floor.  Tenants 
complain  that  portions  of  the  rooms  are  unsafe  and  that  accidents  have 
already  occurred  from  rotten  flooring.  The  occupancy  of  rooms  of  this 
character  must  be  prevented.  It  is  improbable  that  any  measures  could 
make  this  building  safe  and  healthful.  In  many  cities  buildings  of  this 
character  would  be  condemned  or  vacated  by  public  authorities. 


Cellar   dwelling   of  three   rooms  on 


Street   inhabited    by    Poles. 


When  inspected  in  September  this  tenement  was  overcrowded  and  had 
defective  drainage.  Cellar  dwellings  are  prejudicial  to  health  of  occupants 
and  their  occupancy  should  be  prevented  in  old  buildings  as  well  as  new. 


SPECIFIC  HOUSING  PROBLEMS 


being  dark.  This  house  has  a  record  at  the  Board  of  Health 
office  of  three  recent  cases  of  tuberculosis.  At  No.  --  Madison 
Street  there  are  two  dark  rooms  on  every  floor.  In  almost  every 
case  these  same  buildings  and  others  of  their  kind  have  dark 
halls  as  well  as  dark  rooms.  An  extreme  example  of  both  con- 
ditions will  be  found  at  No.  —  Eighth  Avenue,  in  which  on  the 
second  floor  of  an  old  converted  house  was  found  a  negro  family 
of  three,  cooking  and  sleeping  in  one  dark  room.  The  house 
has  had  a  record  of  three  cases  of  tuberculosis  within  the  past 
three  yea'rs,  to  which  may  be  added  a  fourth  case  in  the  room 
just  described.* 

A  comparison  of  the  residential  map  with  the  tuberculosis 
map  of  Newark  will  show  that  deaths  from  tuberculosis,  exclud- 
ing lodging  house  districts,  have  been  especially  numerous 
where  population  is  most  congested  in  high  contiguous  tenement 
houses,  as  the  Prince  **  and  Garside  Street  districts,  and  that 
such  deaths  are  strikingly  infrequent  in  those  crowded  sections 
where  open  building  (characterized  by  spaces  between  houses  on 
adjoining  lots  for  penetration  of  light  and  air)  is  the  rule— r-as 
for  example  the  district  lying  between  Branch  Brook  Park  and 
Fairmount  Cemetery.  The  Augusta  Street  district,  though  not 
generally  characterized  by  high  building  nor  exceptional  crowd- 
ing, is  largely  peopled  by  the  negro  race,  which  is  especially 
susceptible  to  consumption.  Poverty,  undernourishment,  over- 
work and  immorality  increase  susceptibility.  The  general  dis- 
repair and  poor  sanitation  of  houses  also  render  thorough  disin- 
fection, even  if  attempted,  impossible.  The  presence  of  dark 
rooms  in  the  block  bounded  by  Shipman,  Augusta,  and  Arlington 
Streets  and  Springfield  Avenue  creates  a  perpetual  menace  for  all 
tenants. 

The  following  tables  show  for  sample  blocks  the  prevalence 
of  dark  or  gloomy  rooms.*** 

Basement  Dwellings. 

Basement  and  cellar  dwellings  are  still  moderately  frequent 
in  Newark.  In  a  large  percentage  of  cases  the  underground 
rooms  are  used  only  for  cooking  or  general  living  purposes,  the 

*The   family  has  been   forced  by  the   Board   of   Health   to   move   from  this   tenement. 

**The  Jewish  district  is  crowded  with  tenements  and  a  large  population.  There  are 
also  many  dark  rooms  (see  table  for  a  sample  block).  The  tuberculosis  death  rate  is 
less  than  might  be  expected  under  housing  conditions  of  this  character  because  the 
Jews  are  of  a  race  which  shows  marked  immunity  from  consumption  (See  Dr.  M.  Fisch- 
bergin,  "Tuberculosis  Among  the  Jews,"  pp.  415-428  of  Vol.  Ill,  Sec.  V.  of  the  6th 
International  Congress  on  Tuberculosis,  Washington,  D.  C.) 

**Most  of  these  dark  rooms  have  windows  to  the  "outer  air"  (narrow  shafts,  courts, 
or  passage  ways)  but  the  closeness  and  height  of  adjacent  buildings  shut  out  light  from 
the  rooms. 


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SPECIFIC  HOUSING  PROBLEMS 1J_ 

bedrooms  being  located  on  the  floors  above.  But  even  in  these 
cases  health  conditions  are  undesirable,  especially  for  the  women, 
who  must  spend  the  greater  part  of  their  day  in  rooms. that  are 
damp  and  often  sunless.  For  example,  at  No.  —  Lafayette  Street, 
and  at  No.  —  Bowery  Street,  may  be  found  family  living-rooms 
in  the  cellar.  At  numbers  —  and  —  Oxford  Street  are  two 
three— room  cellar  tenements,  in  which  families  sleep  as  well  as 
cook.  These  Oxford  Street  tenements  (see  photograph  No.  26) 
have  been  ordered  vacated  under  Section  779  of  the  Sanitary 
Code.  Th'e  basement  dwelling  is  much  more  widespread  than  the 
cellar  dwelling,  and  constitutes  a  less  serious  problem  ordinarily, 
because  a  larger  percentage  of  the  rooms  in  question  lies  above 
street  or  yard  level.  But  in  those  portions  of  the  city  where 
underground  water  rises  near  the  surface,  at  certain  seasons  of 
the  year,  or  where  defective  yard  drainage  and  rain  leaders  permit 
the  water  to  run  into  the  lower  floor,  health  conditions  may 
become  serious. 

Disposal  of  Body  Wastes. 

Newark  has  met  the  problem  of  sanitation  of  dwellings  bet- 
ter than  most  large  American  cities.  The  sewage  and  water 
systems  are  general.  The  privy  vault  and  cesspool,  the  well 
and  yard  hydrant  have  all  been  largely  eliminated.  There  are 
still,  however,  a  few  privy  vaults  in  violation  of  Section  801  of 
the  Sanitary  Code  in  almost  every  residence  ward  of,  the  city. 
They  will  be  found,  for  example,  at  No.  -  -  Boyden  Street,  at 
No.  --  Bowery  Street,  at  No.  --  Eighth  Avenue,  and  at  Nos.  — 
Market  Street,  in  the  older  wards,  and  will  be  found  throughout 
the  outskirts  of  the  city.  There  is  a  school-sink  serving  houses 
Nos.  -  -  Oxford  Street.  The  Board  of  Health  is  working  for 
the  elimination  of  the  vaults  designated  above,  as  they  exist  on 
sewered  streets.  Their  existence  in  each  instance  is  unnecessary. 

A  more  serious  problem  is  the  existence  of  streets  not  far 
from  the  city  center  which  possess  no  sewers.  The  families  in 
such  sections  must  rely  upon  either  the  privy  vault  or  the  cess- 
pool for  the  disposal  of  waste.  This  means  that  the  soil  in  these 
parts  of  the  city  is  still  becoming  polluted,  and  that  the  homes  of 
these  quarters  are  harassed  by  noxious  odors.  There  is  no 
excuse  for  a  condition  of  this  sort  in  a  city  of  the  size  of  Newark. 
The  presence  of  privies  on  Lexington  Street,  between  Bowery 
and  Passaic,  has  been  explained  by  Health  Inspectors  to  be  due 
to  the  absence  of  a  proper  sewer  on  that  part  of  the  street.  A 
Lister  Avenue  property  in  the  Island  district  (see  photograph 
No.  35),  is  served  by  13  privies,  though  close  to  a  sewer. 
The  Island  district  will,  however,  be  served  shortly  by  a 


12  THE  NEWARK  CITY  PLAN  COMMISSION 

county  sewer.  On  the  border  of  the  Silver  Lake  district,  in 
Belleville,  there  is  surface  drainage  and  an  open  brook  sewer 
flows  on  the  city  line  (photograph  No.  19),  creating  in  a  portion 
of  the  outskirts  that  might  be  made  peculiarly  desirable  as  a 
residence  quarter  a  plague  spot  of  serious  character.  In  general, 
however,  Newark  has  far  surpassed  her  neighbors  (Elizabeth, 
Jersey  City,  Philadelphia)  in  the  extension  of  her  sewerage  sys- 
tem and  in  the  elimination  of  the  privy  vaults. 

In  framing  the  legislation  which  forced  the  elimination  of 
the  privy  vault,  the  yard  water-closet  (example  photograph 
No.  42)  was  permitted  as  substitute.  Although  the  yard  water 
closet  is  not  allowed  for  new  tenement  houses,  it  is  still  per- 
mitted on  the  grounds  of  new  one  and  two-family  houses,  and  is 
widely  prevalent  in  the  older  residence  and  tenement  sections. 
The  yard  water-closet  is  a  vast  improvement  upon  the  privy 
vault,  which  it  replaced,  but  in  this  climate  it  cannot  be  main- 
tained secure  from  freezing  in  the  winter  time,  in  spite  of  the 
anti-freezing  provisions  of  the  Sanitary  Code  (Section  882). 
Such  water-closets,  despite  the  watchfulness  of  the  Health 
Board,  will  sometimes  remain  frozen  for  weeks,  and  thus  tem- 
porarily afford  a  problem  as  urgent  as  that  of  the  privy  vault. 
Furthermore,  the  yard  water-closet  constitutes  a  health  menace 
in  periods  of  inclement  weather,  when  its  use  by  day  or  night 
demands  exposure  in  passing  to  and  from  the  house.  If  not 
used,  the  collection  and  carriage  of  night  accumulation  of  liquid 
and  solid  excreta  to  the  yard  toilet  is  often  carelessly  done. 
Such  waste  spilled  or  unemptied  adds  to  the  unpleasantness  and 
and  unhealthfulness  of  tenement  living. 

The  lack  of  privacy  in  the  use  of  yard  closets  may  constitute 
a  menace  to  morality.  Of  61  yard  closets  in  the  Prince,  Augusta 
and  Joseph  Street  blocks,  33  had  doors  that  would  not  lock. 
Yard  closets  may  also  be  used  by  the  passing  public  making 
possible  the  transmission  of  venereal  diseases  (the  bacilli  of 
both  gonorrhea  and  syphilis  can  live  for  a  few  hours  in  a  moist 
place  outside  of  the  human  body).  An  innocent  user  of  a  toilet, 
in  which  these  germs  are  deposited  may  become  infected  through 
any  slight  abrasion  of  the  skin  which  may  come  in  contact  with 
such  germs. 

Some  northern  cities,  Boston  and  Cambridge  for  example, 
have  forbidden  the  substitution  of  the  yard  water  closet  for  the 
privy  vault.  This  provision  is  attended  with  serious  difficulties 
in  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  put  toilets  in  certain  houses, 
constructed  previous  to  the  law,  and  yet  render  them  accessible 
to  all  tenants,  unless  such  toilets  be  allowed  in  the  cellar  or  in 
the  dark  hallway.  These  latter  are  not  much  more  desirable  than 


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14  THE  NEWARK  CITY  PLAN  COMMISSION 

the  yard  toilet.  It  should,  however,  be  required  that  no  new 
dwelling,  even  a  one  or  two-family  house,  be  erected  without  an 
interior  toilet. 

Water  Supply. 

In  general  throughout  Newark  houses  have  been  connected 
with  the  municipal  water  supply.  There  are  very  few  surface 
wells  in  use,  and  apparently  the  Board  of  Health  exerts  constant 
supervision  over  the  fe\v  that  exist.  In  several  parts  of  the  city 
where  municipal  water  is  available,  \vater  has  not  been  piped 
into  all  the  houses,  but  some  families  are  required  to  use  yard 
hydrants.  Such  hydrants  will  be  found,  for  example,  on  Lister 
Avenue,  on  Passaic  Avenue  near  the  corner  of  Ferry  Street,  on 
Chapel  Street,  and  on  Augusta  Street,  corner  of  Landers  Alley 
(photograph  No.  43).  In  old  tenement  houses  the  water  supply 
is  frequently  placed  in  the  hall  and  shared  by  several  families. 
Ten  families  on  one  side  of  Eighth  Avenue,  between  Nesbitt  and 
Sheffield  Streets,  are  thus  forced  to  procure  their  water  for 
washing,  bathing  and  cooking  from  the  hall.  Cleanliness  is 
likely  to  be  sacrificed  where  water  is  not  easily  accessible. 

Stables. 

Within  a  city  the  presence  of  waste  organic  matter  is  always 
liable  to  become  a  menace  to  health.  Every  city  is  thus  con- 
fronted with  the  problem  of  regulating  the  keeping  of  animals 
within  the  urban  limits.  Tenement  houses  in  Newark  quite  fre- 
quently hide  stables,  situated  in  the  rear  of  the  block,  close  to 
the  houses  and  constituting  a  nuisance.  For  example,  at  Nos. 
— ,  —  and  —  Eighth  Avenue  there  are  old  stables  behind  tene- 
ment houses,  two  of  which  are  unclean  and  beyond  repair.  All 
three  of  these  are  within  the  fire  limits  and  are  maintained  in 
contravention  of  Section  140  of  the  tenement  house  act  which 
forbids  stables  on  the  lot  with  a  tenement  house  within  the  fire 
limits.  The  local  building  code  (Section  80)  forbids  the  erection 
of  new  stables  within  forty  feet  of  any  dwelling.  New  stables  for 
horses,  if  fire-proofed,  can,  however,  be  placed  within  twenty  feet 
of  a  dwelling,  and  old  stables  are  permitted  to  remain  on  lots  with 
one  and  two-family  dwellings.  The  Sanitary  Code,  Sections 
834  and  835  (with  amendment  of  May  4th,  1909),  requires  that 
manure  pits  shall  be  satisfactorily  constructed  and  covered.  The 
provisions  of  the  law  ,as  they  stand  are  not  well  enforced.  Even 
when  stables  are  well  maintained  there  is  always  a  temporary 
accumulation  of  filth  within  them,  and  the  manure  pit  is  seldom 
so  well  covered  as  to  prevent  the  access  of  flies.  For  example, 
the  stable  at  No.  —  Prince  Street  lies  within  35  feet  of  the  house 


SPECIFIC  HOUSING  PROBLEMS 


on  the  same  lot  and  within  20  feet  of  a  14-family  tenement  house, 
containing  87  persons,  built  on  the  adjoining-  lot  line.  It  is 
well  concreted,  but  the  manure  pit,  which  stands  between  it  and 
the  tenement  house,  harbored  hundreds  of  young  flies  on  the  day 
when  visited,  and  the  odor  is  stated  to  be  a  continuous  nuisance 
throughout  the  summer.  This  condition  cannot  be  remedied 
without  change  of  the  law.  At  No.  --  Oxford  Street,  which  is 
within  a  residence  section,  there  are  stabled  about  thirty  cows  ; 
two  other  cow  stables  are  to  be  found  within  the  same  sanitary 
district.  Goats  are  kept  within  the  Island  and  Silver  Lake  dis- 
tricts, and  poultry  is  kept  quite  generally  in-  tenement  and 
residential  quarters.  The  Board  of  Health  does  not  permit 
animals  or  fowl  to  be  kept  \vithin  the  dwellings,  but  a  higher 
standard  in  the  granting  of  permits  would  undoubtedly  improve 
the  health  and  amenity  of  living  within  thickly  populated  resi- 
dence sections.  Dwellings  maintained  over  stables  are  still  to 
be  found  in  Newark,  though  banished  from  many  cities.  At 
numbers  —  and  -  -  Landers  Alley,  for  example,  there  are  apart- 
ments over  stables,  the  occupants  drawing  water  from  the  stable 
faucet,  using  toilets  in  neighboring  buildings  and  dwelling  in 
disgusting  proximity  to  the  uncovered  heaps  of  manure  (mingled 
in  one  case  with  garbage). 

Disposal  of  Household  Refuse  and  Garbage. 

It  is  invariably  difficult  to  provide  for  the  disposal  of  house- 
hold refuse  in  cities.  The  problems  involved  in  making  con- 
tracts with  private  parties  for  refuse  disposal  are  serious.  The 
Board  of  Trade  shows  in  its  report  of  1910  that  the  contract  of 
that  year  was  not  well  enforced.  In  the  crowded  tenement  sec- 
tions collections  are  stated  by  tenants  to  be  too  infrequent  in 
summer  time.  Collections  are  apparently  not  made  at  certain 
quarters  (Nassau  Place,  Landers  Alley  and  parts  of  the  Island 
and  Silver  Lake  districts  where  garbage  is  dumped  in  vacant 
lots).  Overflowing  pails,  and  especially  a  lack  of  covers  for 
garbage  receptacles,  are  general  throughout  Newark.  In  the 
Eighth  Avenue  block  only  7  out  of  27  families  (see  accompanying 
table)  had  metal  pails  for  household  swill,  and  not  one  of  these 
was  found  covered.  The  lack  of  covers  to  the  garbage  recepta- 
cles of  Nos.  -  -  Prince  Street  makes  the  neighboring  basement 
apartments  almost  unlivable.  Yet  frequent  complaints  of  the 
tenants  have  resulted  in  no  action.  It  is  entirely  possible  for 
cities  to  enforce  an  ordinance  requiring  the  covering  of  recepta- 
cles for  garbage.  New  York  City  has  amply  demonstrated  this 
fact  during  the  past  summer.  Tenants  and  owners  have  re- 
sponded to  the  notices  served  by  policemen  and  health  inspectors, 


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SPECIFIC  HOUSING  PROBLEMS     17 

and  where  necessary  have  even  provided  padlock  and  chain  to 
hold  the  covers  on  pails.  The  city  of  Minneapolis,  which  -burns 
its  refuse,  requires  that  all  garbage  be  drained  and  wrapped  in 
newspapers  before  being  placed  for  the  collector,  thus  amply 
protecting  organic  refuse  from  access  of  flies  and  egress  of 
obnoxious  odor. 

The  practice  of  filling  land  with  garbage,  long  since  outgrown 
in  most  leading  American  cities,  still  survives  (under  special 
permit,  Sanitary  Code,  Section  814)  in  Newark,  especially  in 
the  Silver' Lake  district.  Photographs  Nos.  3,  16,  17,  29  show 
garbage  dumps  and  a  vacant  25'  lot  between  two  wretched  houses 
being  filled  with  the  nauseating  refuse  of  a  neighboring  town- 
ship. In  each  of  several  visits  to  this  quarter  I  have  seen  groups 
of  children  standing  ankle  deep  in  these  dumps  pawing  over  the 
filth  in  search  for  articles  of  value.  Democracy  can  not  afford 
to  train  its  next  generation  of  voters  by  means  of  an  environ- 
ment of  this  sort. 

Repair  of  Dwellings  and  Cleanliness. 

Poor  maintenance  of  buildings  may  take  the  form  of  bad 
repair  of  houses.  If  buildings  are  poorly  constructed  or  used  by 
tenants  many  in  number  or  rough  in  character  the  building  is 
soon  badly  worn.  Absentee  landlords  are  not  so  frequently 
responsible  for  prolonged  disrepair  as  ignorant  immigrant  own- 
ers of  low  standards,  or  unthinking  or  unscrupulous  trustees  and 
agents  of  the  estates  of  prominent  local  families.  The  foreign 
quarters  are  owned  by  foreigners  largely,  but  the  Augusta  and 
Shipman  Street  properties  (photographs  Nos.  7,  25,  43)  and  the 
houses  of  Lister  Avenue  (see  photographs  Nos.  4,  34,  35)  are 
owned  largely  by  local  citizens  or  corporations  that  have  not 
been  made  aware  of  their  responsibilities.  A  recent  accident  in 
one  of  these  buildings,  not  yet  rendered  safe,  is  indicative  of  the 
necessity  of  municipal  intervention  to  require  thorough  repair 
or  else  destruction  of  dangerous  dwellings. 

The  Habits  of  Tenants. 

The  conditions  of  house  and  yard  maintenance,  already  de- 
scribed, are  with  few  exceptions  matters  for  which  the  owner  is 
directly  responsible.  But  in  every  city,  and  especially  in  cities 
with  a  large  immigrant  population,  the  personal  habits  of  under- 
educated  or  careless  tenants  create  new  housing  problems.  Thus 
even  in  a  model  tenement  or  dwelling  a  bad  tenant  may  create 
dark  rooms  by  hanging  black  curtains  over  the  windows  or 
keeping  the  blinds  closed.  The  best  water  closet  bowls  are  no 


18  THE  NEWARK  CITY  PLAN  COMMISSION 

better  than  the  worst  when  careless  tenants  leave  them  un- 
flushed.  An  upstairs  dwelling  may  become  as  damp  as  a  cellar 
dwelling  if  the  windows  are  kept  closed  and  large  washings  are 
done  and  hung  up  daily  in  the  apartment.  The  three  problems 
just  mentioned  are  comparatively  rare  and  are  very  difficult  to 
handle  when  found,  for  education  is  everywhere  a  slow  process. 
To  insure  the  safety  of  other  tenants  it  is  necessary,  however, 
for  the  public  to  enforce  a  constant  and  high  standard  with 
regard  to  upkeep  of  dwellings,  which  means  that  filth  *  must 
be  removed,  vermin  exterminated  and  toilets,  halls,  stairs,  yards, 
piazzas,  fire-escapes,  courts  and  passageways  must  be  kept  clean. 
In  a  city  which,  like  Newark,  is  unceasingly  flooded  with  new 
immigrants,  regular  and  frequent  inspection  of  premises  is 
necessary. 

Overcrowding  of  Rooms. 

Every  city  which  has  admitted  immigrants  from  southern 
and  eastern  Europe  is  now  faced  with  the  problem  of  controlling 
the  overcrowding  of  rooms.  It  is  customary  among  these  races 
for  married  persons  to  hire  an  apartment  of  three  or  four  rooms 
and  grant  a  considerable  portion  of  its  space  to  lodgers,  usually 
for  a  payment  by  each  of  approximately  one  dollar  a  week  for 
the  use  of  a  part  of  a  bed  or  a  mattress  on  the  floor  and  including 
sometimes  the  washing  of  clothes  and  the  cooking  of  food.  The' 
original  tenants  of  the  rooms  are  able  by  this  means  to  meet 
their  rent  easily  and  save  money,  the  lodgers  are  able  to  live 
among  their  own  race  and  to  have  some,  at  least,  of  the  com- 
forts of  home.  The  taking  of  lodgers  in  this  way  is  not  invar- 
iably a  serious  problem,  especially  where  lodgers  are  relatives 
of  the  family  that  hires  the  tenement  and  where  rooms  are  large 
and  the  lodgers  and  children  few.  The  problem  arises  when 
lodgers  are  crowded  several  to  the  room  or  bed,  or  where  there 
are  growing  children  who  must  sleep  or  live  among  them.  There 
may  be  a  real  problem  of  room  overcrowding  where  there  are  no 
lodgers  at  all  if  parents  permit  growing  children  to  sleep  in  the 
same  room  with  themselves  or  if  children  of  both  sexes  sleep 
together,  as  is  quite  frequently  the  practice  among  certain 
classes. 

Overcrowding,  taking  the  form  of  large  families  in  small 
quarters,  is  to  be  found  among  the  poor  of  any  city.  Ignorance 
of  the  laws  of  hygiene,  including  sex  hygiene,  often  results  in 
unnecessary  crowding  during  sleeping  hours  when  apartments 
are  large  enough  to  provide  ample  privacy  for  all  members.  The 

*For  extreme  example  see  photograph   (No.  43)   of  house  on  corner  of  —  Street  and 
—   Alley;    also    Lister   Ave.,    (Nos.    34   and    35). 


THE  FIRE  PROBLEM 1_9 

lodger  evil  is  confined  largely  to  the  races  of  southern  and  east- 
ern Europe.  Few  lodgers  were  taken  by  the  Jews  of  the  Prince 
Street  blocks  (only  48  families  out  of  248)  or  by  the  mixed  races 
of  the  Augusta  Street  blocks  (9  out  of  65  families).  On  Eighth 
Avenue,  chiefly  Italian,  lodgers  are  more  frequent.  The  follow- 
ing table  shows  an  average  of  more  than  two  persons  per  room, 
kitchen  included,  in  28  out  of  101  families  (in  one  instance  there 
were  12  persons  in  a  three-room  tenement).  An  extreme  exam- 
ple illustrating  how  bad  conditions  may  exist  where  least  sus- 
pected, is  of  a  family  of  six  sleeping  in  two  beds  in  one  window- 
less  room  on  Springfield  Avenue. 

It  has  usually  been  the  tustom  for  Boards  of  Health  to  spe- 
cify that  rooms  shall  contain  a  stipulated  number  of  cubic  feet 
of  air  capacity  per  individual  and  to  forbid  tenants  to  crowd 
beyond  that  point.  The  standard  in  Newark  for  tenement  houses 
(Section  1,  Ordinance  of  Sept.  1,  1903)  is  400  cubic  feet  of  air 
per  adult.  A  standard  of  this  sort  is  arbitrary,  for  the  fre- 
quency of  air  renewal  and  the  maintenance  of  a  proper  relation 
of  heat  and  humidity  are  of  much  more  importance  to  the  health 
of  the  occupant  than  the  cubic  air  capacity  of  the  room.  No 
satisfactory  standard,  however,  has  been  reached  by  other  cities. 
So  it  is  a  general  practice  for  Health  Boards  to  make  use  of  the 
arbitrary  standard  already  defined  when  they  perceive  that  tene- 
ments are  flagrantly  overcrowded  to  a  point  where  there  is  ob- 
vious danger  to  health.  It  is  obvious  that  only  the  worst  cases 
are  reached  by  a  law  of  this  sort,  and  that  conditions  which  en- 
danger the  morality  and  vitiate  the  air  supply  of  sleeping  tenants 
can  prevail  even  under  a  provision  of  the  above  nature,  when  pro- 
perly enforced.  By  means  of  watchfulness,  occasional  night  in- 
spection, and  specification  of  the  number  of  occupants  to  be 
allowed  in  each  room,  making  the  owner  responsible  to  the  court 
if  overcrowding  is  discovered,  it  is  possible  to  eliminate  the 
worst  cases  of  overcrowding.  The  taking  of  lodgers  may  be  re- 
duced by  requiring  a  permit  from  the  Board  of  Health.  These 
rules  should  be  made  to  apply  to  the  one  and  two-family  houses 
where  conditions  quite  as  serious  may  be  found. 

SECTION  III— THE  FIRE  PROBLEM. 
Within  the  Fire  Limits. 

In  1911  Newark  had  15,973  buildings  of  brick  or  stone  and 
35,596  of  frame  construction.  The  former  are  largely  industrial 
and  commercial  buildings,  but  comprised  also  many  hundred 
residences  and  tenements,  most  of  which  lie  within  the  city 
fire  limits.  The  latter  consist  of  old  buildings,  chiefly  residential, 


NUMBER  AND  COST  OF  ONE  AND  Two  FAMILY 
HOUSES  FOR  WHICH  PLANS  WERE  FILED  IN  ISM. 

COST  ($> 

ONE  FAMILY 

TWO  FAMILY 

$800 

i 

$1000 

4 

$1500  to  $1800 

1 

3 

*£ooo 

25 

4 

2100  to  3400 

6 

1 

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23 

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2600  to  3900 

12 

1 

3000 

29 

26 

3100  to  3400 

3 

7 

3500 

13 

23 

3600  to  3900 

3 

2 

4000 

6 

58 

4-1  00  to  4400 

3 

4 

4500 

3 

31 

4600  to  4900 

5 

II 

5000 

10 

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1 

5300 

2 

14 

5600  to  5900 

1 

0 

6000 

5 

15 

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0 

1 

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1 

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31 

II 

TOTAL 

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22  THE  NEWARK  CITY  PLAN  COMMISSION 

scattered  through  the  heart  of  the  city  and  of  thousands  of  three 
and  two  and  one-half-story  wooden  buildings,  housing  from  twro 
to  eight  families  per  entrance.  The  older  frame  tenement  houses 
were  occasionally  of  multiple  construction;  one  on  Albert  Ave- 
nue, Nos.  -  — ,  containing  36  apartments  (each  with  two  dark 
rooms).  Many  were  four  stories  high  and  built  to  the  lot  line. 
Most  of  them  were  built  within  a  foot  or  two  of  neighboring 
buildings  (photographs  Nos.  1  and  33).  Such  buildings  are  not 
only  dark  and  ill-ventilated  in  their  interior  rooms,  but  they  are 
also  a  serious  fire  risk — a  condition  aggravated  by  the  careless 
habits  of  their  occupants. 

Outside  the  Fire  Limits. 

Outside  of  the  fire  limits  practically  all  new  construction  is 
still  of  wood — a  few  Roseville  apartment  houses  and  Italian 
tenements  (Silver  Lake)  constituting  the  chief  exceptions. 
Three-deckers — for  3  or  6  families  (photographs  Nos.  8,  15,  21 )  — 
are  the  rule,  especially  in  Wards  *  13,  14  and  16,  but  pre- 
vail in  some  streets  of  every  outlying  ward.  Two-family  houses 
are  now  constructed  chiefly  in  Wards  8  and  16  and  in  Vailsburg 
(photograph  No.  10),  one-family  houses  only  among  the  well- 
to-do  in  Forest  Hills,  Roseville  and  near  Weequahic  Park — a  few 
of  more  modest  character  in  Vailsburg  (photo.  No.  5)— and  a 
few  home-made  shacks  (photo.  No.  3)  of  laborers,  near  the 
marshes  or  the  Belleville  line. 

Frame  Dwellings. 

For  the  year  ending  Dec.  31,  1910,  758  new  frame  dwellings 
were  constructed  in  Newark,  but  only  131  new  brick  dwellings 
were  constructed,  indicating  a  vast  predominance  of  inflammable 
construction.  Most  of  these  frame  buildings  were  in  Ward  16, 
which  had  216.  Next  came  Ward  13,  Vailsburg,  with  161,  then 
Ward  9  with  133,  and  Ward  8  with  132.  Wards  8  and  11  led 
in  brick  construction,  with  18  each,  Ward  10  came  next  with  15. 
For  three  years  Ward  16  (Clinton  Hill)  has  led  in  frame  build- 
ings, 175  in  1908,  and  261  in  1909,  and  216  in  1910.  Ward  13 
(Vailsburg)  was  second  with  161,  188,  157,  and  Wards  9  and 
8  at  opposite  ends  of  the  town  taking  third  or  fourth  place, 
leaving  Ward  11  each  year  as  fifth. 

Frame  Tenements. 

Approximately  half  of  the  new  frame  buildings  of  Newark 
are  tenement  houses  (built  for  three  or  more  families).  The 

*Note:    Ward  boundaries  of  Jan.   1912  are  used  here  and  throughout  the  report. 


THE  FIRE  PROBLEM 23 

Board  of  Tenement  House  Supervision  of  New  Jersey  has  record 
of  306  new  tenement  houses  in  Newark,  for  which  plans  were 
filed  between  January  1st  and  August  26,  1912.  Of  these  306 
tenement  houses,  224,  or  73%,  were  of  frame  construction  and 
only  82  of  brick.  The  frame  houses  were  planned  to  accommo- 
date 859  families.  The  brick  houses  provide  dwellings  for  771 
families.  The  large  majority  of  tenement  houses  of  this  year  are 
therefore  frame  houses.  Of  these,  159  are  of  the  three-family 
type,  2  are  four-family  houses,  6  are  five-family  houses  and  56 
are  six-family  houses.  The  prices  of  frame  houses  ranged  from 
$3,500  to  $12,000.  The  usual  price  of  construction  of  three- 
family  frame  houses  is  $5,000,  78  having  been  built  at  that  price 
during  these  eight  months.  There  were,  however,  three  at 
$3,500,  five  at  $4,000,  fourteen  at  $4,500  and  forty  at  $6,000,  fif- 
teen of  a  better  class  having  been  built  for  from  $7,000  to  $9,000 
each.  These  houses  are  usually  built  in  quantity — a  contract 
being  made  for  three  or  more.  It  is  probable,  however,  that  the 
price  is  consistently  understated  in  order  to  avoid  high  taxes 
and  fees. 

Six-family  frame  houses  are  built  for  from  $6,000  to 
$12,000 — the  usual  price  being  $7,000.  There  were  nine  houses 
of  this  type,  stated  to  cost  $6,000  (or  only  $1,000  per  family)  and 
nine  at  $8,000. 

Brick  Tenements. 

The  brick  tenement  houses  provide  for  from  3  to  27  .families 
each  at  prices  ranging  from  $5,000  (for  a  four-family  house)  to 
$42,000 — the  price  stated  for  an  eight-family  house.  The  larger 
tenement  houses  during  this  eight-month  period  were  all  of  cheap 
types,  expending  with  few  exceptions  from  $1,000  to  $2,000  per 
apartment.  Five  houses  were  planned  at  a  cost  stated  at  less 
than  $1.000  per  flat.  Of  these,  one  was  an  eight-family  house — 
price  $7,000,  two  were  sixteen-family  houses,  prices  $13,000  and 
$15,000,  one  a  seventeen-family  house  at  $16,000,  and  one  an 
eio-hteen-family  house  at  $15,000.  Though  the  prices  are  prob- 
ably underestimates  of  the  real  cost  of  the  tenements,  they  may 
be  taken  to  indicate  a  condition  which  is  undesirable — namely, 
that  the  law  permits  brick  tenement  houses  of  four  and  five 
stones  to  be  built  largely  of  wood  interior — cheap  but  inflam- 
mable. The  conflagration  risk  is  somewhat  reduced  by  the  re- 
quirement that  the  outer  walls  and  public  stairs  and  halls  shall 
be  fireproof,  but  otherwise  partitions  between  the  rooms  and 
anartments  are  chiefly  of  wood,  seriously  reducing  the  safety  of 
the  tenants. 


24  THE  NEWARK  CITY  PLAN  COMMISSION 

The  Fire  Risk. 

Newark  is  thus  a  city  with  a  serious  conflagration  risk. 
Within  the  fire  limits  of  the  city  old  inflammable  buildings  crowd 
against  their  neighbors — in  the  new  quarters  building  is  chiefly 
of  wood,  and  new  frame  buildings  may  be  constructed  within 
three  feet  of  the  lot  line.  Frame  buildings  may  be  constructed 
three  stories  or  40  feet  high  and  may  house  six  families,  so  that 
the  carelessness  of  each  is  a  continuous  menace  to  his  neighbors, 
above  or  below  and  on  each  side  (the  brick  partition  in  new 
six-family  houses  partially  reduces  the  lateral  risk).  Brick  tene- 
ment houses  of  less  than  six  stories  are  fireproof  as  to  exterior 
and  halls,  but  dangerous  within  and  no  barrier  to  conflagration. 
In  Newark  few  buildings  are  required  to  be  fireproof  throughout 
unless  65  feet  or  more  in  height  (Building  Code,  Chapter  XIX, 
Section  104),  or  unless  tenement  houses  of  over  five  stories. 
Newark  thus  has  all  the  conditions — close  building  in  wood,  or 
in  brick  and  wood,  inflammable  roofs  and  piazzas — which  made 
possible  the  great  Chelsea  fire  of  Boston  three  years  ago.  A  fire 
well  started  among  the  wooden  tenements,  with  high  favorable 
wind,  may  at  any  time  destroy  millions  of  dollars  of  property— 
and  perhaps  the  lives  of  many  people. 

Fire-Escapes. 

Fire-escapes  are  a  mere  palliative.  In  Europe,  cities  gen- 
erally require  that  all  new  tenement  houses  shall  be  absolutely 
fireproof.  In  America,  however,  where  wooden  construction  is 
much  cheaper  than  brick,  we  have  become  accustomed  to  build 
highly  inflammable  homes,  and  then  attempt  to  reduce  the  danger 
by  placing  fire-escapes  on  all  buildings  above  a  certain  height. 
The  Tenement  House  Act  in  New  Jersey  requires  fire-escapes 
on  tenement  houses  four  stories  or  more  in  height.  Records 
show,  however,  that  deaths  and  accidents  are  frequent  from  fire 
in  wooden  tenement  houses  of  three  stories.  The  Newark 
Building  Code  requires  two  means  of  egress  on  all  three-story 
tenement  houses,  and  this  proves  adequate  in  most  fires.  But 
occasionally  when  fires  start  in  the  cellar,  or  first  story,  both 
means  of  egress  may  be  rendered  impassable  by  flame  or  smoke 
and  fatalities  may  occur. 

Even  from  the  four  and  five  tenement  houses  where  iron  fire- 
escapes  are  provided  egress  is  frequently  checked  by  heat  or 
flame  at  lower  stories  or  because  of  the  mattresses,  bedding  and 
other  articles  which  tenants  have  placed  upon  their  balconies. 
The  law  makes  encumbrance  of  fire  escapes  a  misdemeanor,  but 
a  cursory  examination  of  the  fire-escapes  of  the  city  will  show 
very  frequent  violation.  The  photograph  for  Prince  Street  (Xo. 
6)  illustrates  a  typical  condition. 


Two-family  houses.  One  of  the  most  promising  and  desirable  types  of 
houses,  having  all  the  advantages  of  the  three  and  six  family  frame  houses, 
but  with  more  privacy  and  a  somewhat  reduced  fire  risk.  If  the  space 
between  the  houses  were  increased  by  4  ft.  and  roofs  were  made  fire-proof, 
as  required  by  the  building  ordinances  of  some  cities,  the  fire  risk  would  be 
considerably  reduced;  for  conflagrations  spread  largely  from  the  showers  of 
cinders  on  wooden  shingles.  The  truncated  third  story  leaves  a  bare  ell 
with  flat  roof  which  makes  these  houses  ugly  when  viewed  from  the  side  or 
rear. 


A  street  of  homes.  Practically  every  house  on  the  street  is  owned  by  its 
occupant.  Premises  are  well  kept  and  many  of  the  gardens  are  peculiarly 
attractive.  It  is  still  possible  for  the  workingman  to  live  in  a  single  house 
of  from  five  to  six  rooms  on  the  cheaper  land  on  the  outskirts  of  the  city. 
This  is  the  most  desirable  kind  of  housing,  for  it  combines  privacy,  responsi- 
bility, pride  in  the  home,  family  integrity,  beauty  of  premises  and  an  environ- 
ment for  the  bringing  up  of  infants  and  children  which  is  healthful  and  free 
from  moral  contamination. 


CHAPTER  II. 

LEGISLATION  AND  THE  HOUSING 
PROBLEM 

SECTION  I— GENERAL  STATEMENT. 

Inadequacy  of  Restriction  in  New  Buildings. 

The  housing  problem  of  no  city  is  met  until  that  city  can 
legally  prevent  the  erection  of  any  new  building  that  is  prejudicial 
to  health,  safety  or  morality.  The  preceding  section  shows  that 
buildings  unsafe  from  fire  may  still  be  erected.  It  is  also  still 
possible  in  Newark  to  erect  buildings  that  will  be  unhealthful 
from  lack  of  proper  sanitation,  adequate  sunlight  and  ventilation. 
The  lodging  house  ordinance,  although  excellent  in  its  sanitary 
provisions,  permits  the  use  of  unventilated  windowless  cubicles 
for  night  lodgings.  Lot  congestion  has  not  yet  become  a  serious 
problem  in  Newark,  but  is  possible  still;  for  the  local  building 
code  has  a  lower  standard  than  the  State  Tenement  House  Act. 
It  permits  new  hotels,  to  cover  90%  of  an  interior  lot  and  95% 
of  a  corner  lot  (Section  10)  and  one  and  two-family  houses  to 
cover  80%  of  interior  lots  (Chapter  II,  Section  6)*. 

The  tenement  house  act  still  permits  five-story  tenement 
houses  to  be  built  with  outer  courts  only  4  feet  wride  and  65 
feet  long.  An  example  of  this  latter  type  with  courts  somewhat 
wider  in  which  the  lower  apartments  are  inevitably  gloomy  may 
be  found  at  No.  —  Charlton  Street.  A  more  serious  example  at 
No.  -  -  Prince  Street  shows  the  danger  of  permitting  basement 
rooms  to  be  occupied  on  such  a  shaft-like  court  (55'  x  6',  see 
photographs  Nos.  6,  27,  30,  31)  for  the  three  rooms  behind  the 
store  which  are  used  for  dwelling  purposes  are  all  so  gloomy  by 
day  as  to  be  unfit  for  habitation. 

It  is  possible  to  build  tenement  houses  on  streets  that  are 
not  provided  with  sewers.  It  is  possible  to  build  factories  in 
residence  quarters  where  soot  or  dangerous  gases  may  destroy 
the  pleasure  and  increase  the  work  of  living  and  may  actually 
impair  health. 

*Examination  of  the  specifications  of  two-family  houses  for  which  plans  were  filed 
in  1911,  shows  that  196  covered  less  than  50%  of  the  lot,  and  20  more  covered  from 
50  to  70%,  leaving  only  5  two-tenement  houses  which  covered  more  than  70%,  only  one 
covering  more  than  75%.  (No  information  was  given  with  reference  to  lot  covered  in 
10  instances).  It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  builders  of  two-family  houses  do  not  yet 
take  advantage  of  the  laxness  of  the  law.  It  is  equally  evident  that  the  law  should  be 
made  more  strict  now  when  no  serious  opposition  would  be  encountered. 


26  THE  'NEWARK  CITY  PLAN  COMMISSION 

The  Justification  of  Public  Interference. 

It  is  the  recognized  function  of  state  and  local  governments 
to  protect  the  life,  health,  safety  and  welfare  of  each  citizen  from 
the  intrusion  of  others. 

It  is  thus  the  government's  function  to  determine  what  shall 
be  the  indispensable  minimum  conditions  of  health,  safety  and 
welfare  to  be  afforded  to  occupants  by  the  construction,  sanita- 
tion and  maintenance  of  buildings,  new  and  old,  and  to  force  all 
landlords  and  tenants  to  conform  to  such  minimum.  In  recog- 
nition of  this  duty,  sanitary  codes,  building  codes  and  tenement 
house  acts  have  been  passed  and  enforced.  Boards  of  Health, 
Building  Departments,  Tenement  House  Departments,  and  the 
courts  are  entrusted  with  the  enforcement.  Public  action  in 
America  usually  ends  at  this  point.  It  will  be  showTn  later,  how- 
ever, after  consideration  of  these  first  matters  how  organizations, 
private  and  public,  can  influence  and  improve  in  new  ways  the 
housing  conditions  of  the  city  and  how  the  City  Plan  can  direct 
and  co-ordinate  both  private  and  public  measures  for  the  pre- 
vention of  evil  housing  conditions. 


SECTION    II— EXISTING    HOUSING    LEGISLATION    IN 

NEWARK. 

Scope  of  Present  Codes. 

After  a  careful  study  of  housing  conditions  has  been  made  in 
any  city  the  essential  first  step  toward  housing  reform  is  the 
enactment  of  legislation,  which  will  prevent  the  recurrence  in 
new  buildings  of  any  conditions  which  endanger  life  or  health, 
and  which  will  eliminate  dangerous  conditions  from  buildings 
already  erected.  The  construction  of  all  new  buildings  in  Newark 
is  guided  by  the  local  Building  Code,  which  was  enacted  in  1911. 
The  sanitary  conditions  of  dwellings  are  regulated  by  the  Sani- 
tary Code  of  the  Board  of  Health,  enacted  by  that  Board  in 
1902  and  but  slightly  amended  since  that  time.  A  local  Fire 
Prevention  Code,  approved  in  December,  1910,  and  amended  on 
May  3,  1912,  has  provisions  governing  the  fire  risks  of  dwellings. 
The  Lodging  House  Ordinance,  which  was  passed  in  1910,  and 
becomes  operative  this  year,  governs  the  sanitation  and  main- 
tenance of  "every  building  in  which  ten  or  more  persons  are 
lodp-ed  for  a  single  night  or  longer  at  a  charge  of  35c.  per  night 
or  less  for  each  person." 


Six-family  houses.  A  type  of  houses  that  is  ugly  and  inflammable.  The 
side  rooms  are  usually  sunless.  It  is  possible  for  the  city  to  eliminate  this, 
type  of  house  from  the  parts  of  the  city  now  unbuilt. 


EXISTING  HOUSING  LEGISLATION 


New  Jersey  Tenement  House  Act. 

All  of  these  local  codes  except  the  Lodging  House  Ordi- 
nance are  consistent  with*  the  provisions  of  the  Tenement  House 
Act  of  New  Jersey,  which  was  passed  in  1904.  This  latter  is  a 
compulsory  state  law,  applying  to  all  tenement  houses  within 
the  state,  erected  both  prior  and  subsequent  to  the  enactment 
of  the  Act.  At  the  time  of  its  passage  the  Tenement  House  Act 
was  the  best  of  its  kind  in  America.  It  still  leads  in  some  details 
and  is  not'  far  behind  the  best  in  the  majority  of  its  provisions, 
and  has  served  as  a  model  for  many  state  and  local  laws  since  its 
enactment.  The  administration  of  the  Act  is  in  the  hands  of 
the  State  Board  of  Tenement  House  Supervision,  with  offices  in 
Union  Building,  Newark.  There  is  nothing  in  this  Act  that 
should  prevent  its  continuous  improvement  from  year  to  year, 
but  the  Act  has  not  been  amended  materially  since  its  enactment 
in  1904,  except  for  an  excellent  provision  in  the  laws  of  1911, 
Chapter  322,  which  permits  the  State  Board  to  stop  all  work  in 
any  tenement  house  in  process  of  construction  or  alteration  in 
which  any  violation  of  the  Act  has  occurred,  until  such  violation 
is  removed. 

Relation  of  Local  Codes  to  State  Act. 

Local  boards  of  health  and  building  departments  of  New 
Jersey  have  power  to  make  more  strict  in  the  local  codes  the 
provisions  of  this  Act.  Yet  the  only  provisions  of  the  local 
Ordinances  of  Newark  which  improve  in  any  marked  way  upon 
the  State  Act  with  reference  to  tenement  houses  are  the  follow- 
ing: 

.  Building  Code,  Section  145,  forbids  erection  of  three-story 
frame  double  tenements,  known  locally  as  ''double  deckers"  (the 
six-family  frame  tenement  with  a  common  entrance).  The  six- 
family  tenement  with  a  brick  division  wall  from  cellar  to  roof, 
separating  the  two  families  on  each  floor,  is  still  permitted. 

Building  Code,  Section  145.  "The  covering  of  roofs  with 
wood  shingles  is. prohibited."  Specifications,  Section  93. 

Amendments  to  Board  of  Health  Ordinance.     Section  778. 

"Section  778.  No  owner,  agent  or  lessee  of  any  building  or 
any  part  thereof  shall  lease  or  let,  or  hire  out  the  same,  or  any 
part  thereof,  or  allow  the  same  to  be  used  or  occupied  as  a  place 
in  which  or  for  any  one  to  dwell  or  lodge,  unless  such  building 
or  such  parts  thereof  so  to  be  occupied  as  a  dwelling  or  lodging 
shall  be  kept  sufficiently  lighted  and  ventilated,  and  provided 

*Required  by  section   185   of  that  Act. 


28  THE  XBWARK  CITY  PLAN  COMMISSION 

with  proper  water-closet  accommodations,  and  are  at  all  times 
in  that  condition  of  cleanliness  and  wholesomeness  for  which 
this  code  provides,  or  in  which  such  code  requires  such  premises 
be  kept." 

''Section  778a.  In  all  tenement  houses  where  separate  water- 
closets  are  not  maintained  for  each  family,  and  in  all  business 
places  separate  water-closets  shall  be  provided  for  each  sex, 
arranged  so  as  to  secure  absolute  privacy;  in  dwellings  or  places 
used  as  a  permanent  place  of  abode  for  persons  at  least  one  water- 
closet  shall  be  provided  and  maintained  for  each  seven  persons." 

"Section  829a.  No  rabbits,  guinea  pigs,  pigeons,  chickens, 
ducks,  geese,  or  other  fowl  shall  be  kept  within  the  city  of  New- 
ark except  under  the  following  conditions : 

"A.  A  permit  shall  be  required  therefor  from  the  Board  of 
Health,  which  permit  shall  be  revocable  at  the  pleasure  of  said 
board,  and  must  be  renewed  annually.  A  fee  of  one  dollar  shall 
be  paid  by  the  person  receiving  such  permit. 

"B.  That  under  no  condition  shall  any  of  the  above-men- 
tioned animals  or  fowls  be  kept  or  maintained  in  tenement  houses 
or  tenement  house  yards." 

"Section  782a.  That  no  owner,  agent  or  lessor,  of  any  build- 
ing shall  allow  any  chimney,  smoke  pipe,  smoke  stack,  flue  or  any 
part  thereof,  or  any  connection  therewith,  to  be  or  to  remain  in 
any  way  defective  or  out  of  repair,  so  as  to  allow  coal  or  illum- 
inating gas,  or  any  noxious  fumes  or  odor  to  escape  therefrom 
into  said  building." 

Limits  of  the  Various  Codes. 

In  general  it  should  be  stated  that  the  Building  Code  regu- 
lates in  detail  the  materials  and  structure  of  buildings — with 
especial  reference  to  safety,  and  the  Sanitary  Code  provides  in 
detail  for  the  plumbing,  drainage,  and  general  sanitation  of  all 
buildings,  and  for  the  abatement  of  nuisances  and  for  healthful 
maintenance. 

SECTION    III— RECOMMENDED    CHANGES    IN    TENE- 
MENT HOUSE  LAW. 

The  Need. 

In  every  large  American  city  a  thorough  examination  of 
housing  conditions  will  reveal  (I)  that  the  existing  laws  are 
unevenly  enforced ;  (2)  that  existing  laws  are  not  adequate  to 
insure  proper  living  conditions  for  the  entire  population — even 
if  enforced.  Newark,  though  better  off  than  most  American 


TENEMENT  LAW  CHANGES 


cities  in  this  respect,  is  not  an  exception  to  these  rules.  The 
following  Section  indicates  the  gaps  or  inadequacies  in  the  legal 
provisions  of  State  and  City  concerning  tenement  houses. 

Definition  of  Tenement  House. 

Article  I,  Section  1,  Paragraph  2  defines  a  tenement  house 
as  "any  house  or  building  or  portion  thereof  which  is  rented, 
leased,  let  or  hired  out  to  be  occupied  or  is  occupied  as  the  home 
or  residence  of  three  families  or  more  living  independently  of 
each  other  and  doing  their  cooking  upon  the  premises  .  .  ." 

Many  cities  and  states  have  already  discovered  that  it  is 
essential  to  include  the  two-family  house  under  the  provisions 
of  the  Tenement  House  Act.  It  is  possible  in  Newark  today 
under  the  local  building  and  sanitary  codes  to  create  living  con- 
ditions in  new  two-family  houses  which  would  not  be  permitted 
in  the  new-law  tenement,  and  would  be  seriously  detrimental  to 
the  health  of  occupants.  The  definition  of  a  tenement  house 
should  include  the  two-family  house,  and  should  be  changed  to 
read  in  substance  as  follows : 

"A  tenement  house  is  'any  house  or  building  or  portion 
thereof  which  is  rented,  leased,  let  or  hired  out,  to  be  occupied 
or  is  occupied,  or  is  intended,  arranged  or  designed  to  be  occu- 
pied as  the  home  or  residence  of  TWO  or  more  families,  living 
independently  of  each  other,  and  includes  apartment  houses  and 
flat  houses,  but  does  not  include  hotels.  Dwelling  houses  occu- 
pied or  intended  to  be  occupied  as  the  home  or  residence  of  one 
family  or  more,  if  built  in  rows,  or  with  the  side  walls  less  than 
one  foot  distant  from  the  nearest  wall  of  another  building;  or 
if  the  halls,  stairways,  yard,  cellar,  water  supply,  water-closets, 
or  privies,  or  some  of  them  are  used  in  common,  shall  be  deemed 
to  be  tenement  houses  and  shall  be  subject  to  all  provisions.' ' 

It  is  possible  by  the  enactment  of  this  definition  and  by 
making  a  few  necessary  changes  in  the  sections  regarding'  fire- 
proofing,  fire-escape,  size  of  yards,  courts,  etc.,  which  are  ex- 
plained in  succeeding  paragraphs,  to  afford  all  necessary  super- 
vision to  the  construction  and  maintenance  of  houses  in  the 
congested  quarters  of  the  city  and  to  prevent  the  construction 
o'f  dwellings,  which  endanger  life  or  health.  The  definition  sub- 
stantially as  given  above  has  already  been  adopted  by  the  fol- 
lowing- cities  and  states :  Columbus,  O.,  Montreal,  Q.,  Chicago, 
111..  Milwaukee,  Wis.,  Toledo,  Ohio,  and  the  State  of  Indiana 
(Act  of  1909,  Chapter  47),  and  has  the  approval  of  the  National 
Housing  Association. 

A  number  of  minor  modifications  are  necessary  throughout 
the  act  which  could  be  made  wisely,  only  after  careful  study  of 


30  THE  NEWARK  CITY  PLAN  COMMISSION 

the  housing  codes  of  the  cities  mentioned  in  this  section  and  the 
revised  Model  Tenement  House  Law  by  Lawrence  Veiller.* 

Percentage   of  Lot   Covered. 

Article  III,  Section  1,  Paragraph  88,  provides  that  no  tene- 
ment house  hereafter  erected  shall  occupy  more  than  ninety  per 
cent,  of  a  corner  lot  or  more  than  seventy  per  cent,  of  any  other 
lot.  This  provision  should  be  modified  so  as  to  prevent  any  tene- 
ment or  dwelling  house  hereafter  erected  from  occupying  either 
alone  or  with  other  buildings  more  than  eighty  per  cent,  of  a 
corner  lot  or  more  than  sixty  per  cent,  of  an  interior  lot.  (Model 
Tenement  House  Law  Rev.,  Chapter  II,  Paragraph  10.  See  also 
the  laws  of  Indiana,  which  restrict  to  85%  and  65%  respectively, 
Cleveland  65%,  Columbus  75'%  and  50%,  and  the  Massachusetts 
Tenement  House  Act  for  towns  restricting  to  65%  for  corner 
lots  and  50%  for  interior  (Pt.  II,  Sec.  9).) 

Height. 

Article  III,  Section  1,  Paragraph  90,  permits  houses  to  be 
erected  to  a  height  equal  to  one  and  a  half  times  the  width  of 
the  widest  street  on  which  they  stand.  The  result  is  darkened 
rooms  and  sunlessness  on  lower  floors.  A  future  law  should  not 
permit  tenement  houses  to  exceed  in  height  the  width  of  the 
widest  street  on  which  they  stand.  This  provision  as  amended 
will  be  found  in  the  Massachusetts  Tenement  House  Act  for 
towns,  and  in  the  Housing  Codes  of  Columbus,  O.,  the  building 
Code  of  Washington,  D.  C.,  and  many  large  European  cities, 
Liverpool,  Glasgow,  Berlin,  &c. 

Yards. 

Article  III,  Section  1,  Paragraph  92,  provides  that  the  depth 
of  the  "yard  behind  a  tenement  house  hereafter  erected  fifty  feet 
in  height  shall  be  not  less  than  sixteen  feet  in  every  part;  said 
yard  shall  be  increased  in  depth  one  foot  for  every  additional 
twelve  feet  of  height  of  the  building  above  fifty  feet."  This 
provision  is  most  inadequate,  especially  when  applied  to  the 
tall  tenement  house.  If  any  part  of  Newark  should  be  built  up 
compactly  with  high  apartment  houses  in  conformity  with  the 
minimum  provisions  of  the  present  law,  the  interior  of  the  blocks 
would  suffer  from  utterly  inadequate  ventilation  and  light.  Yet 
this  is  a  possibility  which  must  be  considered  seriously,  for 

*A  typewritten  copy  of  this  book  as  amended  can  be  consulted  through  the  National 
Housing  Association   at   105    E.   22nd   St.,   New   York   City. 


A  row  of  new-law  tenements,  four  stories  high  with  basement.  Fire 
escapes  are  encumbered  in  spite  of  law.  At  the  rear  of  these  houses  are 
courts  approximately  55  ft.  deep  and  only  5  ft.  wide.  The  lower  floor  rooms 
at  the  ends  of  these  courts  are  very  inadequately  lighted.  Unless  the  pro- 
visions of  the  tenement-house  act  or  building  code  are  made  more  strict  with 
reference  to  width  of  outer  courts  and  occupancy  of  basements,  the  city  will 
soon  be  involved  in  heavy  expense  for  the  tuberculosis  bred  and  spread  in 
the  dark  rooms  which  this  type  of  construction  causes.  These  buildings 
already  have  a  tuberculosis  record. 


TENEMENT  LAW  CHANGES 


Newark  is  growing  rapidly.  Most  apartment  houses  in  Newark 
today  enjoy  sufficient  light  and  air  only  because  their  neighbors 
have  not  yet  constructed  tall  buildings  on  the  adjoining  lots.  To 
protect  the  city  from  such  contingency  it  is  necessary  to  pre- 
vent new  tenement  houses  of  three  stories  from  being  erected 
within  twenty-five  feet  of  the  rear  lot  line,  or  within  15  feet  if 
a  corner  lot,  and  the  depth  of  such  yard  should  be  increased  by 
five  feet  for  every  additional  story  of  height  of  the  building. 
(Compare  Model  Tenement  House  Law  Revised,  Chapter  II, 
Paragraph  '12,  and  also  the  Massachusetts  Tenement  House  Act 
for  Towns,  which  has  this  identical  provision.) 


Courts. 

Article  III,  Section  1,  Paragraphs  96  to  108,  require  complete 
revision  in  order  to  secure  for  your  city  outer  courts  and  inner 
courts  which  shall  be  adequate  in  size  to  permit  all  rooms  to  be 
properly  lighted  and  ventilated.  At  present  the  New  Jersey 
Tenement  House  Act  permits  an  outer  court  to  be  constructed 
which  shall  be  only  4  feet  wide,  and  yet  may  penetrate  into  the 
building  to  the  depth  of  65  feet.  Such  an  outer  court  is  scarcely 
an  improvement  upon  the  notorious  dumb-bell  shafts  of  New 
York  City  built  before  the  enactment  of  the  present  New  York 
Tenement  House  Act.  Your  present  law  is  much  less  strict  in  this 
regard  than  the  laws  of  all  leading  Eastern  cities.  The  New  York 
Law  (Sections  56-9)  which  is  not  yet  adequate,  requires  inner 
courts  to  be  at  least  12'  x  24'  for  six-story  buildings  and  outer 
courts  6'x65', — much  stricter  than  the  New  Jersey  law.  It  requires 
only  a  cursory  examination  of  the  first  story  flats  in  the  large 
tenement  houses  built  in  the  Prince  Street  districts  of  Newark 
to  show  that  the  law  as  it  stands  permits  the  erection  of  buildings 
positively  detrimental  to  the  health  of  the  inmates.  The  follow- 
ing is  suggested  as  a  wise  .minimum  provision  for  your  city. 
"The  minimum  width  of  a  court  for  a  two-story  building  shall 
be  ten  feet,  for  a  three-story  building,  twelve  feet,  for  a  four- 
story  building,  fourteen  feet,  and  shall  increase  two  feet  for  each 
additional  story.  The  length  of  an  inner  court  shall  never  be 
less  than  TWICE  the  minimum  width  prescribed  by  this  section  ; 
the  length  of  an  outer  court  shall  never  be  greater  than  twice  its 
minimum  width."  (Model  Tenement  House  Law  Revised,  Chap- 
ter II,  Section  13 ;  see  also  the  Massachusetts  Tenement  House 
Act  for  Towns,  which  has  this  identical  provision.  The  State  of 
Indiana,  Section  6,  requires  12  feet  as  least  dimension  for  an 
inner  court  and  288  square  feet  as  minimum  area.)  The  advisa- 
bility of  abolishing  the  inner  court  completely  for  new  tenements 


32  THE  NEWARK  CITY  PLAN  COMMISSION 

should  be  considered.  At  the  best  the  inner  court  limits  sun- 
light and  ventilation  and  reduces  safety  and  privacy.  It  is  not 
essential  in  tenement  construction  and  can  be  prohibited  with- 
out causing  serious  hardship. 

Vent  Shafts. 

Article  I,  Section  1,  Paragraph  5,  which  defines  a  vent  shaft 
should  be  omitted.  Paragraphs  127-9,  134-5,  should  be  changed 
in  so  far  as  they  authorize  the  construction  of  vent  shafts  in  new 
buildings.  All  the  provisions  relating  to  inner  courts  should  be 
made  to  apply  where  vent  shafts  are  now  permitted.  Vent  shafts 
are  not  essential  to  tenement  house  construction,  and  invariably 
create  undesirable  conditions,  odors,  indecent  sounds  and  lack 
of  light  and  air.  All  water  closets  in  future  buildings  should  be 
constructed  with  light  and  ventilation  from  street,  court,  or  yard. 

Fire  Provisions. 

The  danger  from  conflagration  in  Newark  is  so  serious  that 
a  radical  change  is  needed  in  the  fire  provisions  of  the  Tenement 
House  Act.  In  Section  60  is  the  requirement  that  "every  tene- 
ment house  hereafter  erected  six  stories  or  more  in  height  shall 
be  made  fireproof  throughout."  Tenement  houses  from  four  to 
six  stones  in  height  are  permitted  to  be  of  second  class  con- 
struction, with  brick  exterior  and  stair  halls ;  three  story  tene- 
ment houses  may  be  of  wood  outside  the  city  fire  limits.  These 
provisions  should  be  amended  to  require  that  every  tenement 
house  hereafter  erected  four  or  more  stories  in  height  shall  be 
fireproof  throughout,  and  that  three-story  tenement  houses 
should  have  a  brick  exterior  and  a  fireproof  stair  hall.  By  means 
of  this  provision  it  would  be  possible  to  prevent  the  erection  of 
tenement  fire  traps  of  the  sort  which  plague  the  cities  of  the 
northern  states.  If  a  distance  of ,  10  feet  is  required  between 
two-flat  houses  and  they  are  provided  with  two  means  of  egress 
from  each  floor  includine  inhabited  rooms  in  the  third  half  story 
and  with  non-combustible  roofs,  a  fireproof  exterior  will  not  be 
necessary.  Single-family  houses  should  also  have  fireproof  roofs 
and  should  not  be  built  nearer  than  ten  feet  from  one  another. 
These  provisions  as  suggested  are  less  strict  than  those  in  force 
in  the  city  of  Montreal,  which  forbids  all  new  frame  construc- 
tion, even  of  single-family  houses,  and  which  declares  (Section 
27)  that  all  wooden  buildings  hereafter  erected  contrary  to  the 
provisions  of  the  by-law  shall  be  deemed  a  nuisance,  and  that 
it  "shall  be  the  duty  of  the  inspector  to  give  notice  to  the  owner 
or  builder  of  said  building  to  abate  such  nuisance,  and  in  event 


Yard   at   rear  of  Street,   showing   the  three   outer  courts,   each 

about  6  ft.  x  55  ft.,  which  light  inadequately  the  lower  rooms  of  tenements 
erected  under  the  present  law.  The  litter  in  the  yard  shows  the  usual  condi- 
tion of  tenement  yards  in  cities  provided  with  an  inadequate  force  of 
inspectors. 


TENEMENT  LAW  CHANGES  33 

. 

of  the  owner  or  builder  failing  to  do  so  within  forty-eight  hours, 
the  inspector  may  cause  such  building  to  be  demolished  and  the 
expenses  incurred  in  so  doing  may  be  collected  from  said  owner 
or  builder  in  court." 

The  Massachusetts  Tenement  House  Act  for  Towns  (already 
adopted  in  Belmont,  Arlington  and  Winthrop)  is  also  more  strict 
than  those  above  suggested  in  that  it  requires  all  three-tenement 
houses  to  be  fireproof  throughout,  and  forbids  any  frame  build- 
ing to  be  constructed  within  ten  feet  of  the  lot  line  or  twenty 
feet  of  any  other  building.  This  latter  provision  could  not  be 
adopted  in  Newark  until  the  suburbs  are  incorporated  in  the 
city,  and  the  shape  of  the  building  lots  is  changed  (See  page  68). 

Frame  Buildings. 

Article  II,  Section  1,  Paragraph  65,  permits  frame  buildings, 
three  stories  or  forty  feet  in  height  to  be  erected  of  wood,  and  to 
accommodate  six  families  and  to  be  built  within  three  feet  of  the 
lot  line.  To  secure  complete  safety  from  conflagration,  and  ade- 
quate circulation  of  air,  this  provision  should  be  corrected  to 
require  that  no  frame  building  shall  be  built  more  than  two  whole 
stories  in  height  or  to  be  occupied  by  more  than  four  families 
in  all.  No  new  wooden  buildings  of  any  kind  should  be  allowed 
to  be  built  or  altered  so  as  to  lie  in  any  part  within  five  feet  of 
the  •  lot  line  or  within  ten  feet  of  any  neighboring  building. 
Guidance  in  the  framing  of  this  modified  provision  may  be  found 
in  the  Model  Tenement  House  Law,  Paragraph  52,  and  in  the 
Massachusetts  Tenement  House  Act  for  Towns,  Section  10,  which 
requires  all  frame  buildings  to  be  10  feet  from  lot  line  or  20  feet 
from  wall  of  any  other  building. 

Combustible   Roofs. 

As  a  further  item  in  the  protection  of  Newark  from  confla- 
gration, from  its  immediate  suburbs,  the  State  Tenement  House 
Act  should  adopt  the  provision  that  no  dwelling  house  or  tene- 
ment shall  be  erected  hereafter  with  a  roof  of  inflammable  ma- 
terial. Serious  fires  spread  largely  through  the  falling  of  live 
cinders  upon  shingled  roofs.  The  following  provision,  which  is 
to  be  found  in  the  building  ordinance  of  Somerville,  Massachu- 
setts (Section  60),  could  be  wisely  copied.* 

*See,also  the  Building  Law  of  Brookline,  Mass.,  which  enumerates  the  materials 
of  which  such  roofs  may  be  constructed.  Article  VIII,  Sec.  5.  The  City  of  Newark 
has  a  similar  provision,  but  the  provision  should  be  made  to  cover  the  suburbs  adjoining 
or  Newark  may  suffer  from  conflagration  in  neighboring  suburbs. 


34  THE  NEWARK  CITY  PLAN  COMMISSION 

"Every  roof  hereafter  constructed  shall  be  covered  with  a 
non-combustible  roof  covering  satisfactory  to  the  inspector  of 
buildings. 

"Whenever  a  non-combustible  roof  covering  is  hereafter  re- 
placed in  whole  or  in  part,  the  new  roof  covering  shall  be  non- 
combustible  to  the  satisfaction  of  said  inspector." 

Fire  Escapes. 

Fire-escapes  are  at  present  required  on  "every  non-fireproof 
house  hereafter  erected  more  than  three  stories  high."  Many 
serious  fires  have  occurred  in  three-story  tenement  houses,  in 
which  egress  of  tenants  of  upper  floors  was  cut  off  by  flames  or 
smoke-filled  hallways.  Unless  three-story  tenement  houses  are 
provided  with  two  outside  fireproof  stairways,  one  of  which  is 
directly  accessible  to  each  apartment,  they  should  be  provided 
with  iron  fire-escapes  of  the  type  specified  in  Sections  35-47.  A 
provision  of  this  general  character  is  already  locally  enforced  in 
Jersey  City.  Iron  fire-escapes,  though  of  less  safe  character,  are 
also  required  on  three-tenement  houses  in  New  York  City  and 
Buffalo.  This  provision  should  apply  to  all  buildings,  whether 
new  or  old. 

Windows. 

In  addition  to  the  general  requirements  with  regard  to  height, 
size  of  yards  and  courts,  and  the  percentage  of  lot  to  be  covered, 
which  have  already  been  indicated,  a  few  minor  specific  changes 
in  the  Tenement  House  Act  should  be  made.  For  example,  in 
Sections  114-15,  the  Tenement  House  Act  excludes  wrater  closets 
from  its  general  provisions  concerning  size  of  windows.  This  is 
a  concession  to  custom  which  is  unjustifiable  from  the  health 
standpoint.  Light  and  air  are  very  necessary  in  toilet  compart- 
ments as  disinfectants  and  cleansers,  and  toilets  should  be  pro- 
vided with  windows  as  large  proportionally  to  area  as  those  in 
other  rooms.  The  healthfulness  of  tenement  homes  would  be 
increased  if  the  Act  required  all  rooms  to  have  windows  equal 
to  one-seventh  of  the  superficial  floor  area  instead  of  one-tenth, 
as  now  required.  This  stricter  provision  is  suggested  by  the 
Model  Tenement  House  Law  and  by  the  Massachusetts  Tene- 
ment House  Act  for  Towns. 

Size  of  Rooms. 

For  the  same  reasons,  also,  it  is  probably  wise  to  specify 
minimum  sizes  for  rooms.  New  Jersey,  in  Section  116,  requires 
that  in  every  tenement  house  there  shall  be  at  least  one  room 


Vacant  lot  being  filled  with  garbage.  This  lot  is  25  ft.  wide  and  on  each 
side  of  it  is  a  residence.  The  stench  is  almost  unendurable.  The  house  at 
the  right  has  basement  living  rooms  and  is  poorly  constructed.  The  neigh- 
borhood is  a  disgrace  to  the  city.  Conditions  of  this  type  are  unnecessary 
and  are  tolerated  in  few  American  cities  to-day. 


Unsanitary  houses  within  a  block  of  the  court  house.  On  this  blind 
alley  are  several  wretched  dwellings,  at  least  two  of  which  are  located  over 
stables.  Such  conditions  are  not  tolerated  in  many  progressive  cities. 


THNHMHNT  LAW  CHANGES 35 

containing  not  less  than  120  square  feet  of  floor  area,  and  that 
each  room  shall  contain  at  least  70  square  feet  of  floor  area. 
A  number  of  cities  today  make  90  square  feet  the  minimum  floor 
area,  and  the  Massachusetts  Law  and  Columbus  Ordinance  re- 
quire one  room  in  each  apartment  of  150  square  feet  floor  area — 
thus  giving  ample  room  for  space  needs,  reducing  danger  of 
overcrowding,  and  removing  one  of  the  chief  conditions  which 
renders  tenement  houses  cramped,  confining,  and  repellant  to  the 
growing  boy  and  girl,  driving  them  to  street,  saloon  or  dance- 
hall. 

Crowding  and  Air  Space. 

Provisions  in  the  New  Jersey  Act  with  regard  to  the  amount 
of  air  space  in  rooms  are  specified  in  Section  142.  "No  room  in 
any  tenement  house  shall  be  so  overcrowded  that  there  shall  be 
afforded  less  than  four  hundred  cubic  feet  of  air  for  each  adult, 
and  two  hundred  cubic  feet  of  air  to  each  child  under  twelve 
years  of  age  occupying  such  room."  The  Model  Tenement 
House  Law  and  the  Housing  Code  of  Columbus,  O.,  require  600 
cubic  feet  of  air  to  each  person  over  twelve  years  of  age  and  400 
cubic  feet  to  each  child.  Provisions  of  Rochester,  New  Orleans, 
Ottawa,  and  a  number  of  other  cities  make  use  of  this  higher 
standard.  It  must  be  stated  that  this  requirement  is  somewhat 
arbitrary  in  character,  for  where  there  is  thorough  ventilation 
the  health  of  occupants  may  not  be  impaired  in  rooms  containing 
less  than  400  cubic  feet  of  air  space  for  each  adult.  It  is  desir- 
able, however,  for  Health  Boards  and  the  Tenement  House  De- 
partment to  have  a  high  standard  of  this  sort,  which  they  may 
apply  in  apartments  in  which  there  is  evidence  that  there  is 
crowding  to  an  extent  dangerous  to  health  or  morality.  No 
completely  satisfactory  alternative  for  a  provision  of  this  char- 
acter has  yet  been  suggested.  Section  778  of  the  Amended 
Health  Ordinance,  however,  contains  a  valuable  supplementary 
requirement.  (See  page  27). 

Dark  Halls. 

It  is  still  possible  to  build  tenement  houses  in  Newark  with 
dark  halls.  Dark  halls  are  socially  undesirable,  both  because 
they  form  an  environment  favorable  to  the  long  life  of  disease 
germs  deposited  there,  because  there  is  danger  from  accident  on 
the  dark  stairways,  and  also  because  of  the  temptation  to  immoral 
practices  which  "they  afford,  especially  for  the  growing  children 
of  the  tenement.  Section  118  of  the  Tenement  House  Act  re- 
quires tenement  houses  occupied  by  more  than  two  families  on 


36  THE  NEWARK  CITY  PLAN  COMMISSION 

a  floor  or  exceeding  four  stories  in  height  to  have  windows  in 
public  halls.  This  should  be  amended  to  require  windows  in 
public  halls  of  every  tenement  house — such  window  to  open 
directly  upon  the  street,  yard,  or  court,  of  at  least  the  minimum 
dimensions  specified  in  this  Act  as  amended. 

Section  123  requires  dark  halls  in  old  tenement  houses  four 
stories  or  more  in  height  to  be  rendered  lighter  by  the  removal 
of  panels  of  doors  to  apartments,  replacing  the  panels  by  trans- 
lucent glass.  This  provision  should  be  made  to  apply  to  all 
tenement  houses  (including  the  two-flat  house  as  newly  defined, 
p.  29).  save  that  windows  should  be  cut  to  the  outer  air  from 
such  hall  wherever  that  is  possible. 

Cellars. 

Section  130  permits  cellars  to  be  occupied  for  living  purposes 
under  specified  conditions.  Cellar  dwellings  should  be  prohib- 
ited in  all  buildings,  new  or  old.  Basement  dwellings  should  be 
forbidden  in  all  new  buildings  save  that  a  special  permit  for 
basement  apartments  for  janitor  may  be  secured  from  the  Board 
of  Health,  under  the  conditions  specified  in  Section  131,  and 
permits  for  continued  use  of  basements  now  occupied  might  be 
granted  in  accordance  with  Section  130.  No  such  permits  should 
be  granted  if  such  basement  is  damp  at  any  time  of  year,  and  no 
room  in  such  basement  should  be  occupied  unless  it  is  pene- 
trated by  sunlight  throughout  the  year.  Some  cities  and  states 
have  forbidden  absolutely  all  living  in  basements,  as  well  as  in 
cellars.  Such  a  provision  will  be  found  in  the  State  Law  of 
Indiana  (Section  19).  No  new  basement  dwellings  should  be 
created;  old  basement  dwellings  should  be  emptied  wherever 
any  danger  to  health  can  be  shown  to  be  present  or  imminent. 

Water  Closets. 

A  few  amendments  should  be  made  in  the  sanitary  pro- 
visions of  the  Act.  Section  160  requires  at  least  one  water-closet 
compartment  in  every  new  apartment.  The  Act  should  re- 
quire that  a  separate  toilet  be  provided  for  each  family  in  old 
buildings  as  well  as  new,  and  that  wherever  possible,  such  toilet 
should  be  within  the  apartment.  The  cellar  toilet  should  be  pro- 
hibited absolutely  in  all  dwellings,  save,  of  course,  as  an  acces- 
sory. Section  161,  which  permits  yard  toilets  for  tenement 
houses  of  three  or  four  stories,  should  be  further  amended  to 
discourage  as  far  as  possible  the  provision  of  yard  closets.  No 
yard  closets  should  be  permitted  for  a  tenement  house  or  dwell- 
ing of  any  height  where  it  is  possible  to  place  toilets  within  the 


TENEMENT  LAW  CHANGES 


apartment,  or  if  not  within  the  apartment  within  the  hall.  Doors 
of  all  toilet  compartments  should  be  required  to  be  provided  with 
locks  or  bolts. 

Water  Supply. 

Section  170  now  reads,  "Every  now  existing  tenement  house 
located  on  any  street  in  which  water  mains  are  laid  shall  be 
properly  connected  to  such  water  mains,  and  shall  have  at  least 
one  sink  within  each  apartment;  provided,  however,  that  in 
tenement  houses  where  a  sink  is  now  installed  on  each  floor,  in 
the  public  hall,  such  sinks  shall  be  deemed  sufficient."  This 
section  should  be  amended  by  eliminating  the  proviso,  thus 
permitting  no  exception  to  the  requirement,  that  there  be  sinks 
in  each  apartment.  The  common  sink  is  subject  to  the  neglect 
always  accorded  to  common  property.  It  furthermore  puts 
cleanliness  at  a  premium. 

Why  Such  Changes  Should  be  Made  Preferably  in  the  Tenement 

House  Act. 

The  above  changes  have  been  recommended  for  the  Tene- 
ment House  Act  rather  than  for  the  local  Codes  because  it  is 
desirable  that  all  of  these  requirements  should  be  enforced  in  all 
cities  of  the  state.  If  Newark  alone  should  adopt  these  re- 
quirements, the  city  would  to  some  extent  suffer  from  the  ab- 
sence of  similar  provisions  in  neighboring  cities.  For  the  illness 
made  possible  by  inadequate  legislation  in  Elizabeth  or  Orange 
may  be  carried  to  the  citizens  of  Newark,  or  a  conflagration  in  the 
wooden  buildings  of  Orange  may  cross  the  city  line.  The  in- 
sanitary conditions  on  the  edge  of  Belleville  affect  the  citi- 
zens of  the  Silver  Lake  District.  Furthermore,  if  Newark  should 
be  more  strict  than  its  neighbors  in  its  building  requirements, 
new,  cheap  tenement  houses  would  be  constructed  in  large  num- 
bers just  outside  the  city  line,  where  the  evils  that  they  create 
can  injure  seriously  the  health  of  Newark  citizens,  but  where 
their  Board  of  Health  would  have  no  jurisdiction. 

Changes  Should  be  Made  Cautiously. 

Utmost  caution  must  be  exerted,  however,  in  any  attempt 
to  improve  the  Tenement  House  Act.  The  interest  and  approval 
of  leading  citizens  and  the  general  public  in  other  New  Jersey 
cities  must  first  be  elicited,  otherwise  more  would  be  lost  than 
gained  by  any  attempt  to  change  the  Act.  Short-sighted  build- 
ers and  speculators,  and  ignorant  immigrant  tenement-house 
owners  would  quickly  combine  to  overthrow  many  or  all  of  the 


88  THE  NEWARK  CITY  PLAN  COMMISSION 

important  features  of  the  existing  Act,  especially  those  concern- 
ing enforcement.  Many  short-sighted  architects  and  owners  of 
good  intention  would  join  this  combination  because  of  failure  to 
perceive  that  the  health  of  the  people  and  the  welfare  of  the  state 
is  at  stake.  The  Tenement  House  Act  should  not  be  tampered 
with  until  the  Boards  of  Trade  and  the  philanthropic  organiza- 
tions of  all  the  leading  cities  of  New  Jersey  are  informed  of  their 
local  problem  and  of  the  necessity  of  change  and  are  ready  to  back 
such  changes  as  will  cause  marked  improvement  in  that  Act,  and 
in  the  facilities  for  its  enforcement. 

SECTION   IV— RECOMMENDED    CHANGES    IN    BUILD- 
ING CODE. 
General  Recommendations. 

While  awaiting  the  thorough  organization  of  a  state-wide 
housing  reform  many  of  these  provisions  may  be  adopted 
locally  by  means  of  amendment  to  health  and  building  codes. 
At  present  the  building  department  concerns  itself  exclu- 
sively with  the  consideration  of  structural  details.  In  the 
majority  of  large  American  cities,  in  which  no  state  tenement 
house  act  is  operative,  building  departments  are  entrusted  with 
the  enforcement  of  provisions  concerning  lighting  and  ventilation. 
Your  Building  Department  at  present  assumes  that  it  has  no 
jurisdiction  here  and  leaves  such  matters  to  Health  and  Tenement 
House  Departments.  There  should,  however,  be  specifications 
in  the  Building  Code  prohibiting  the  construction  of  dark  rooms 
or  windowless  rooms  and  halls  even  in  one  and  two-family 
houses,  forbidding  the  construction  of  three-story  frame  tenement 
houses  (as  recommended  a  few  years  ago  by  Mayor  Haussling), 
requiring  the  cutting  of  windows  in  dark  rooms  and  halls  of  old 
buildings. 

Specific  Recommendations. 

A  few  specific  recommendations  for  changes  in  the  existing 
code  may  also  be  offered.  Section  6  should  be  amended  (and  the 
Lodging  House  Ordinance  as  well)  to  place  in  the  lodging  house 
class  any  building  in  which  six  or  more  persons  are  lodged  for  a 
single  night  or  for  periods  of  less  than  a  week  at  less  than  50c. 
per  night. 

Section  6  should  also  be  amended  to  forbid  any  private 
dwelling  from  covering  more  than  60%  of  the  lot  area,  or  80% 
of  a  corner  lot  (now  80%  and  92%). 

Section  10  should  be  amended  to  bring  the  apartment  hotel 
under  the  provisions  of  the  Tenement  House  Act. 


Interior   of    block    bounded    by 


and 


Avenues.     Houses 


almost  without  exception  are  six-family  houses  built  about  six  feet  apart. 
Where  six  families  crowd  into  a  house,  gardens  become  impossible.  This 
type  of  housing  is  preferable,  however,  to  the  brick  tenement  which  fills  the 
whole  width  of  its  lot  and  all  but  14  feet  at  the  rear.  The  generous  provision 
of  yard  space  in  this  block  makes  it  possible  to  have  a  fairly  free  circulation 
of  air  and  sunlight  in  all  but  side  and  north  rooms  at  every  story. 


Two  city  blocks,  largely  built  with  new-law  tenement  houses  by  immi- 
grant Italian  owners.  The  white  five-story  tenement  house  at  the  left  has 
an  outer  court  to  the  yard  which  is  only  3  ft.  8  in.  wide  (to  the  lot  line) 
but  is  56  ft.  deep.  If  a  whole  city  block  were  built  of  tenement  houses  of 
this  kind,  as  is  possible  under  the  present  tenement  house  act,  approximately 
half  of  the  population  would  have  inadequate  light  and  ventilation.  Sunlight 
would  reach  less  than  half  the  rooms  of  the  block. 


•       SANITARY  CODE  CHANGES 39 

Section  28  should  be  amended  to  forbid  non-fireproof  build- 
ings to  be  erected  more  than  three  stories  in  height. 

Section  46  should  be  eliminated  and  the  construction  of  light 
and  vent  shafts  in  new  buildings  should  be  forbidden. 

Section  142  should  be  amended  to  forbid  frame  dwellings  to 
be  constructed  for  more  than  two  families,  or  more  than  two 
and  one-half  stories  high. 

Section  145  should  be  amended  to  forbid  frame  buildings  to 
be  erected  within  five  feet  of  the  lot  line,  or  within  ten  feet  of 
any  neighboring  building. 

The  last  paragraph  in  Section  146,  which  permits  laxness  in 
the  application  of  rules  to  outlying  portions  of  the  city  should 
be  eliminated  completely. 


SECTION     V— RECOMMENDED     CHANGES     IN     SANI- 
TARY CODE. 

General  Recommendations. 

The  Sanitary  Code  of  the  city  should  be  amended  to  include 
the  provisions  with  regard  to  water-closets,  sinks,  crowding  of 
rooms  and  occupancy  of  cellar  and  basement  dwellings  already 
indicated. 

Specific  Recommendations. 

In  addition,  the  Sanitary  Code  should  further  be  amended 
as  follows:  Sections  780,  781,  783  should  be  made  to  apply  to 
one-  and  two-family  houses. 

Section  814  should  be  amended  by  erasure  of  the  words 
"Unless  pursuant  to  a  special  permit  from  this  Board." 

Section  818,  which  requires  that  owners,  etc.,  of  every  dwell- 
ing "shall  provide  and  keep  on  the  premises  suitable  barrels  or 
receptacles  for  receiving  and  holding  garbage,"  should  be  made 
less  vague.  A  provision  in  the  revised  ordinances  of  the  city  is 
more  specific,  but  places  the  power  of  enforcement  with  the 
Board  of  Works.  This  is  essentially  a  health  matter,  however, 
and  the  Board  of  Health  should  be  given  authority  to  require 
that  all  garbage  receptacles  shall  be  of  metal  and  at  all  times, 
properly  covered  and  should  have  assistance  from  the  Police 
Department  in  the  enforcement  of  this  provision. 

Section  835  of  the  amendment  should  be  amended  to  pre- 
vent any  manure  vault  from  remaining  within  40  feet  of  any 
dwelling. 


40  THE  NEWARK  CITY  PLAN  COMMISSION 

Section  882  should  be  amended  by  erasure  of  the  words  "or 
be  ventilated  by  means  of  a  shaft  or  air  duct,"  thus  requiring 
all  water  closets  to  be  properly  ventilated. 

The  ordinance  of  Sept.  1,  1903,  should  be  made  to  apply  to 
one-  and  two-family  houses,  thus  making  it  possible  to  eliminate 
over-crowding  from  the  shacks  of  the  Island  and  Silver  Lake 
Districts,  which  do  not  fall  under  the  Tenement  Act. 


CHAPTER  III 

ENFORCEMENT  OF  HOUSING  LAWS 

SECTION  I— THE  NEED. 

Laws  to  protect  the  health  of  a  community,  though  of  model 
character,  are  of  no  value  unless  enforced.  It  is  obvious  from 
the  foregoing  discussion  that  many  of  the  provisions  of  the  state 
and  local  laws  are  not  enforced  with  reference  to  old  buildings. 
A  condition  of  this  sort  is  likely  to  breed  contempt  for  govern- 
ment, especially  on  the  part  of  our  recent  immigrants,  who  are 
very  generally  the  offenders,  both  as  tenants  and  as  owners  of 
tenement  houses.  To  maintain  a  high  standard  throughout  a 
city  of  the  size  of  Newark  large  inspection  forces  must  be  main- 
tained to  supervise  all  dwellings,  new  and  old.  It  is  unfair  to 
criticise  the  responsible  public  boards  for  poor  administration  of 
the  laws  when  those  boards  are  inadequately  equipped  with  legal 
power  of  enforcement  or  with  inspectors.  I  am  convinced  that 
the  work  of  both  the  State  and  local  Boards  is  carried  on  about 
as  well  as  could  be  expected  when  the  smallness  of  the  appro- 
priation and  of  the  staff  are  taken  into  consideration. 

SECTION   II— STATE   BOARD    OF  TENEMENT   HOUSE 

SUPERVISION. 

General  Statement. 

Of  the  three  public  bodies  charged  with  the  administration 
of  housing  laws,  the  State  Board  of  Tenement  House  Supervi- 
sion is  the  best  equipped  with  legal  powers  of  enforcement, 
and  is  the  least  hampered  by  political  considerations.  It  also 
has  the  best  record  system  and  is  in  general  administered  with 
-exceptional  ability.  Its  powers  of  enforcement  are  not  entirely 
adequate  nor  speedy  when  contrasted  with  those,  for  example, 
of  the  New  York  tenement  house  departments. 

Penalty  Clause. 

In  general  it  may  be  said  that  the  penalties  are  too  low  to 
frighten  a  certain  class  of  tenement  builders  from  attempts  to 
evade  the  law  and  cover  up  their  evasion.  I  therefore  heartily 
•endorse  the  suggestion  made  by  the  Secretary  of  the  State  Board 


42  THE  X ElV ARK  CITY  PLAN  COMMISSION 

of  Tenement  House  Supervision,  in  the  Eighth  Annual  Report 
of  that  body,  page  68,  in  which  that  department  recommends  an 
amendment  to  the  existing  statute  which  will  make  the  penalty 
for  violation  of  the  Tenement  House  Law  $100  in  each  instance. 
Compliance  would  be  much  more  speedy  if  in  addition  to  this 
increased  flat  penalty,  were  added  the  provision  found  in  Section 
124  of  the  New  York  Tenement  House  Law  of  1909,  in  which  a 
penalty  of  not  less  than  $10  nor  more  than  $100  is  incurred  if  the 
offence  is  not  wilful  and  of  $250  if  the  offence  be  wilful  AND 
IN  EVERY  CASE  OF  $10  FOR  EACH  DAY  AFTER  THE 
FIRST  THAT  SUCH  VIOLATION  SHALL  CONTINUE 
OR  BY  BOTH  SUCH  FINE  AND  IMPRISONMENT  IN 
THE  DISCRETION  OF  THE  COURT. 

Sections  182-184. 

Specifically,  Sections  182  and  183  of  the  New  Jersey  Act 
are  adequate.  Section  184  might  be  strengthened  by  the  incor- 
poration of  the  following  words  borrowed  from  Section  122  of 
the  New  York  Act.  "During  such  unlawful  occupation  .... 
no  rent  shall  be  recoverable  by  the  owner  or  lessee  of  such 
premises  for  such  period,  and  no  action  or  special  proceeding 
shall  be  maintained  therefor  or  for  possession  of  said  premises 
for  non-payment  of  rent.  The  Department  of  Water  Supply 
shall  not  permit  water  to  be  furnished  in  such  tenement  house."" 

Sections  185-188. 

Sections  185,  186,  187  and  188  are  in  general  adequate. 
Article  VI  (penalties)  should  be  made  more  strict  in  accordance 
with  Section  124  of  the  New  York  Act  (as  above  indicated). 

Aid  of  the  Courts. 

In  general  the  State  Board  of  Tenement  House  supervision 
has  succeeded  very  well  in  enforcing  its  provisions  due  to  the 
excellent  co-operation  of  the  State  Attorney  and  of  the  courts. 
The  number  of  cases  in  which  fines  are  collected  is  very  small, 
the  owner  being  allowed  some  time  in  which  to  conform  to  the 
law  before  action  is  undertaken.  Until  there  is  a  new  provision 
for  the  placing  of  a  larger  State  legal  force  at  the  command  of 
the  Tenement  Department,  this  procedure  is  wise,  for  otherwise, 
the  State  Attorney  would  have  more  cases  than  he  could  handle 
with  ease. 


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44  THE  NEWARK  CITY  PLAN  COMMISSION 

Inadequate  Appropriation. 

In  general  the  work  of  the  State  Board  of  Tenement  House 
Supervision  is  cramped  by  the  wretchedly  small  appropriation 
afforded  to  that  department  each  year.  In  the  year,  October 
31,  1911,  to  October  31,  1912,  only  $58,800  was  appropriated. 
With  this  small  appropriation  the  State  Board  is  expected  to 
supervise  in  every  detail  the  construction  of  over  1,000  tenement 
houses  built  during  the  year  throughout  the  State,  and  to  keep 
in  proper  sanitary  condition  the  50',000  old  tenement  houses 
already  built  within  the  State.  The  office  has  only  27  inspectors 
for  the  entire  State,  and  Captain  Allen  has  very  wisely  placed 
the  major  part  of  his  force  at  work  on  new  tenement  houses  to 
prevent  evasions  of  the  law  in  their  construction,  leaving  only 
a  small  portion  of  the  force  available  to  supervise  old  tenements. 
Despite  this  fact  excellent  work  has  been  done  in  the  upkeep 
and  removal  of  violations  from  old  tenements  as  the  accompany- 
ing table  will  show.  But  any  regular  inspection  of  old  tenements 
is  obviously  impossible,  thought  urgently  needed.  In  fact,  not 
all  of  the  old  tenement  houses  in  the  State  have  yet  received 
their  first  inspection  from  the  Board  within  the  eight  years  of  its 
existence.  Captain  Allen,  its  Secretary,  stated  at  the  Tenth 
Annual  Conference  of  the  New  Jersey  Charities  and  Corrections 
that  in  only  five-tenths  of  one  per  cent,  of  these  old  tenements 
were  no  violations  found.  Ordinarily,  from  two  to  twenty  viola- 
tions are  found  in  each  house.  The  housing  problem  will  not  be 
handled  adequately  in  these  old  tenements  until  the  State  of 
New  Jersey  trebles  its  appropriations  to  the  tenement  house 
department.  The  needs  of  the  Tenement  House  Department  are 
primarily  a  larger  force  and  more  money. 

SECTION  III— THE  BUILDING  DEPARTMENT. 
General  Recommendations. 

The  Newark  Department  of  Building  is  well  administered 
and  progressive.  It  has  made  important  suggestions  for  the 
improvement  of  the  local  Building  Code  and  has  been  instru- 
mental in  extending  the  city  fire  limits.  It  is,  however,  chiefly 
concerned  with  purely  structural  problems,  and  has  not  assumed 
jurisdiction  over  the  lighting  and  ventilation  of  the  one-  and  two- 
family  houses  not  covered  by  the  State  Tenement  House  Act. 
In  general  the  Annual  Reports  of  the  department  overlook  the 
social  aspect  of  the  local  building  problem.  The  department  has 
in  its  possession  important  information  concerning  the  types  of 
houses  which  are  being  built  in  various  parts  of  the  city,  but 


THE  BUILDING  DEPARTMENT 45 

this  information  is  not  compiled  and  offered  to  the  public. 
The  reports  of  the  Building  Department  of  Milwaukee  show  the 
number  of  one-family  houses,  two-flat  houses  and  apartments 
built  each  year  in  each  ward  of  the  city.  Similar  statistics 
should  be  published  annually  for  Newark. 


Fire  Limits. 


The  fire  limits  of  the  city,  though  recently  extended,  are  still 
lot  sufficiently  inclusive,  as  examination  of  the  type  of  building 
ust  outside  of  the  fire  limits  will  demonstrate  (photo.  No.  15). 
The  fire  limits,  however,  need  not  be  extended  if  the  provisions 
tlready  suggested  concerning  the  fireproofing  of  three  and  four 
story  tenement  houses  are  locally  adopted. 

More  Inspectors  Necessary. 

The  Building  Department  is  provided  with  a  force  of  only 
17  employees,  10  of  whom  are  building  inspectors.  Yet  there 
are  from  500  to  800  new  buildings  in  the  process  of  erection  in 
the  city  all  the  time.  Obviously  the  department  has  very 
little  time  for  any  activity  save  inspection  of  new  buildings.  On 
August  28,  1910,  however,  a  canvass  of  the  old  buildings  of  the 
city  was  begun.  In  two  years  3,700  old  buildings  had  been 
inspected,  of  which  1,181  were  found  to  have  violations  of  the 
fire-escape  provisions  of  the  Code.  As  there  are  55,000  buildings 
in  the  city,  it  would  take  the  department  at  this  rate  about  thirty 
years  to  cover  all  the  existing  buildings.  This  important  work 
cannot  be  conducted  efficiently  and  thoroughly  without  an  in- 
creased force  of  inspectors. 

Danger  in  Board  of  Appeals. 

The  department  controls  new  construction  through  the  re- 
quirement that  plans  shall  be  filed  and  permits  granted  for 
all  construction.  Enforcement  is  aided  through  the  establish- 
ment of  penalties  (Section  151)  which  are  fairly  adequate.  The 
department  furthermore  has  power  to  vacate  and  demolish  unsafe 
structures  (Section  148).  Fifty  buildings  were  condemned  by 
it  last  year.  The  power  of  the  department  is,  however,  materially 
reduced  through  the  right  of  appeal  from  its  decisions  provided 
in  Section  150,  granting  to  the  Committee  on  Construction  and 
Alteration  of  Buildings  of  the  Common  Council  power  to  reverse 
the  decision  of  the  Superintendent  of  Buildings.  Appeal  is 
likely  to  result  in  the  nullification  of  the  law  in  any  city.  The 
power  is  always  dangerous,  but  especially  dangerous  when  left 


46          THE  NEWARK  CITY  PLAN  COMMISSION 

to  a  committee  of  political  construction.  It  would  probably  be 
wise  for  Newark  (or  perhaps  a  special  committee  from  the 
Board  of  Trade)  to  make  a  detailed  study  of  all  the  appeals 
granted  within  the  past  two  years,  and  of  the  reasons  for  which 
the  decision  of  the  Superintendent  of  Buildings  has  been  over- 
thrown. (Three  hundred  ninety-one  appeals  were  granted  by 
the  Common  Council  Committee  last  year.) 

Political  Favors. 

Some  complaint  has  come  to  me  that  much  of  the  time  of 
this  and  other  municipal  departments  has  been  wasted  by  persons 
and  even  by  officials  outside  of  the  department  who  want  favors 
in  construction  of  their  own  buildings,  or  those  of  their  friends, 
and  jobs  for  friends  or  relatives.  This  department  is  evidently 
firm  in  its  refusal  of  such  overtures,  but  its  official  work  could 
profitably  be  promoted  by  elimination  of  unnecessary  difficulties 
of  this  sort.  A  live  public  opinion  demanding  high  standards 
of  all  municipal  employees  would  accomplish  much  in  facilitating 
the  administration  of  the  local  departments  charged  with  the  pro- 
tection of  public  health  and  safety. 

SECTION  IV— THE  BOARD  OF  HEALTH. 

Susceptibility  to  Popular  Demand. 

The  Board  of  Health  is  charged  with  elimination  of  con- 
ditions causing  disease,  or,  to  state  the  function  positively,  with 
the  maintenance  of  conditions  which  will  promote  the  health  of 
citizens.  Its  task  is  huge  and  unceasing,  comprising  the  main- 
tenance of  laboratories,  dispensaries,  disinfection  corps,  hospitals, 
etc.,  in  addition  to  the  inspection  of  foods  and  buildings.  This 
large  and  important  work  is  performed  at  least  as  well  as  in  the 
average  large  American  city.  There  are  fads  in  public  health 
control  to  which  public  health  departments  must  be  responsive. 
Of  late  Newark  citizens  have  been  most  interested  in  the  pro- 
vision of  institutions  for  the  tuberculous,  in  public  dispensaries, 
and  most  recently  in  milk  supply,  hence  the  sanitary  inspection 
of  the  Board  has  been  maintained  without  the  incentive  which  a 
live  public  opinion  should  afford.  The  result  is  not  so  much 
neglect  as  a  lack  of  aggressiveness.  Public  officials  are  respon- 
sive to  popular  demand,  for  their  positions  are  dependent  upon 
such  responsiveness.  If  the  citizens  of  Newark  are  not  content 
with  the  existence  of  conditions  of  the  sort  described  in  the 
sample  blocks  investigated,  their  remedy  is  to  demand  more 
aggressive  action  from  the  Health  Board — and  to  PAY  for  it. 


THE  BOARD  OF  HEALTH 


Small  Proportion  of  Public  Funds  Spent  on  Prevention. 

It  is  a  striking  commentary  on  the  superficiality  or  the  preoc- 
cupation of  the  American  people  that  they  are  willing  to  pay 
many  dollars  for  palliatives  for  every  one  spent  in  prevention. 
Newark  is  no  exception.  In  1909  Newark  spent  $576,000  on  fire 
service  (ten  times  the  whole  State  appropriation  to  that  excellent 
agency  of  prevention — the  Tenement  House  Department)  to  put 
out  fires,  the  majority  of  which  might  have  been  prevented.  It 
likewise  spent  $740,000  for  police  protection  and  about  $500,000 
on  charities,  hospitals  and  penal  institutions.  But  it  granted 
only  $278,000  to  its  Health  Department,  which,  with  an  appro- 
priation doubled  or  trebled  and  properly  administered,  could 
make  notable  reductions  in  the  cost  of  cure  and  could  increase 
the  industrial  efficiency  and  general  welfare  of  the  city  by  im- 
provement in  general  health. 

Mortality  and  Bad  Housing. 

The  death  rate  in  Newark  is  about  the  average  prevailing  in 
the  larger  American  cities.  Your  city  should  not  be  content  to 
maintain  such  a  death  rate,  but  should  be  willing  to  make  an 
appropriation  sufficient  to  reduce  to  the  minimum  the  prevent- 
able diseases.  In  the  year  1911,  707  persons  died  of  tuberculosis, 
37  persons  of  typhoid  fever — both  preventable  diseases —  and 
there  were  701  deaths  from  bronchitis  and  pneumonia,  now  often 
classed  as  bad-air  diseases,  and  partially  occasioned  by  bad 
housing  conditions.  Unsanitary  homes  are  also  partly  responsi- 
ble for  many  other  diseases — either  directly  or  by  reducing 
vitality  and  rendering  the  individual  susceptible  to  disease.  It  is 
perfectly  obvious  that  it  would  be  wisdom  for  your  city  to  spend 
several  thousand  additional  dollars  per  year  in  the  removal  of 
the  causes  of  preventable  diseases,  rather  than  to  spend,  as  it 
does,  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  in  charities,  hospitals, 
prisons  and  other  agencies,  which  merely  cure  the  individual 
whom  preventable  conditions  have  in  most  cases  made  ill. 

More  Inspectors  Needed. 

The  number  of  health  officials  in  Newark  should  be  more 
than  doubled.  At  present  the  Board  employs  only  18  for  the 
whole  city — an  obviously  inadequate  number.  Within  his  dis- 
trict each  sanitary  inspector  must  look  up  all  complaints  (there 
were  3,488  in  1911),  inspect  plumbing,  stables,  markets,  etc.,  and 
then  may  devote  such  time  as  is  left  to  the  voluntary  inspection 
of  dwellings.  Only  15,783  original  inspections  are  recorded  for 


48  THE  XEWARK  CITY  PLAN  COMMISSION 

1911,  though  there  are  over  40,000  dwelling  houses  in  the  city. 
Proper  upkeep  demands  at  least  monthly  inspection  of  every 
dwelling  or  tenement  in  immigrant  quarters.  Since  the  Tenement 
House  Board  cannot  provide  regular  inspection  of  old  buildings 
it  is  incumbent  upon  the  city  to  so  provide.  Since  immigrant 
tenants  have  not  yet  learned  to  report  nuisances  in  any  large 
degree  to  the  Health  Department,  and  since  they  frequently 
either  fear  to  offend  the  owner  by  reporting  or  are  too  ignorant 
to  be  aware  of  the  menace,  the  number  of  complaints  where 
nuisances  exist  is  still  small.  Noxious  conditions  may  thus  last 
for  days  and  weeks  or  even  months  without  coming  to  the  atten- 
tion of  an  over-worked  department.  Frequent  regular  inspection, 
though  necessary,  cannot  exist  in  an  under-manned  department. 
A  larger  force  is  necessary. 

More  Records  Needed, 

The  Department  furthermore,  is  quite  lacking  in  proper 
records  of  the  causes  and  attendant  conditions  of  the  reported 
cases  of  contagious  and  infectious  diseases — a  second  means  of 
attack  upon  conditions  dangerous  to  health.  For  example,  no 
record  is  kept  of  the  home  conditions  of  tuberculous  patients, 
or  of  the  heredity,  or  the  industrial  environment  of  such  cases. 
Very  full,  careful  records  are  equally  necessary  for  typhoid  fever 
and  other  diseases,  both  infectious  and  contagious. 

Investigation  of  Origin  of  Infectious  Diseases. 

A  comparison  of  the  typhoid  fever  map  with  the  population 
map  of  Newark  shows  that  typhoid  fever  in  your  city  is  not 
distributed  in  accordance  with  congestion  of  population,  as  it 
would  be  likely  to  be  if  brought  to  your  city  through  the  munici- 
pal water  supply.  As  the  purity  of  your  water  is  unquestioned, 
a  second  possible  source,  the  milk  supply,  might  be  considered. 
It  is  of  course  conceivable  that  the  cases  as  distributed  might 
have  resulted  from  milk  infection  or  from  some  other  food.  It 
is,  however,  striking  that  the  number  of  cases  on  the  outskirts  of 
the  city  should  be  so  large  in  proportion  to  the  population  of 
such  outlying  quarters.  The  typhoid  fever  map  can  prove 
nothing,  but  it  suggests  the  desirability  of  examining  with  great 
care  the  home  conditions  of  all  recent  cases.  Our  investigation 
shows  that  the  disposal  of  garbage  in  these  outlying  districts  is 
very  careless.  It  shows  a'lso  that  stables  which  are  almost  un- 
restricted in  outlying  quarters  are  poorly  kept.  Flies  may  there- 
fore breed  in  abundance  as  carriers  of  the  bacillus.  There  are 
some  privies  in  these  outlying  quarters  and  occasional  surface 


THE  BOARD  OF  HEALTH 49 

drainage.  It  is  probable  therefore  that  there  are  several  sources 
of  active  infection  from  this  and  other  diseases  in  your  outlying 
districts  which  demand  careful  intensive  examination  and  elim- 
ination. 


, 


Inadequacy  of  Amount  and  Enforcement  of  Penalties. 


The  powers  of  enforcement  of  the  Health  Department  are 
inadequate.  Penalties  are  low,  usually  $5.00,  $10.00  or  $25.00, 
even  for  serious  offences.  Larger  fines  are  not  collected  where 
offenders  are  dilatory. 

Conclusions. 

The  Chicago  Board  of  Health  secures  and  keeps  records  on 
over  60  points  with  reference  to  each  case  of  typhoid  fever  in 
the  city.  Newark's  records  are  not  one-tenth  as  extensive  and 
are  an  inadequate  basis  for  prevention  of  the  disease.  If  accu- 
rate records  were  kept  of  these,  a  progressive  health  board  with 
an  adequate  staff  and  appropriation,  unhampered  by  politics 
could  eliminate  a  large  portion  of  the  conditions  which  occasion 
illness,  and  would  save  the  city  vast  sums  in  future  taxes,  would 
save  employers  the  serious  drain  which  results  from  irregular 
attendance  at  work,  and  would  materially  reduce  the  morbidity 
and  death  rates  of  the  city  and  render  it  an  exceptionally  desir- 
able place  of  residence. 

To  reduce  preventable  disease  and  render  homes  healthful 
your  Health  Board  needs  more  money — and  thereby  a  larger 
inspection  force  and  better  and  more  permanent  records.  It 
needs  larger  powers  and  heavier  penalties.  It  needs  also  the 
interest,  appreciation  and  aid  of  an  enlightened  public  opinion 
which  will  remove  political  pressure  and  the  legal  handicaps 
which  restrict  the  Board's  effectiveness  and  which  will  incite  to 
aggressive  action  in  housing  reform. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  HOUSING   PROBLEM  AND 
REPLANNING  OLD  DISTRICTS 

INTRODUCTION. 
General  Statement. 

The  planning  of  cities  involves  the  adjustment  of  the  phys- 
ical resources  of  the  city  to  meet  the  needs  of  its  population, 
present  and  future.  The  proper  planning  of  cities  may  be  made 
to  affect  housing  conditions  in  a  variety  of  ways.  The  functions 
of  city  planning  may  be  considered  conveniently  under  two  cap- 
tions. First,  the  remodelling  of  the  old  city,  and  second,  the 
determination  of  the  mode  of  development  of  new  sections.  Of 
these  the  first  program  is  largely  remedial  in  character,  while  the 
second  is  fundamentally  preventive. 

SECTION  I— THE  SLUMS. 
Methods  of  Treatment  of  Unsanitary  Areas. 

City  planning  within  the  heart  of  a  built-up  city  involves 
schemes  for  dealing  in  a  large  way  with  unsanitary  districts. 
An  extreme  example  of  such  a  district  in  Newark  comprises  the 
major  part  of  Arlington,  Augusta,  Shipman,  and  Nicholson 
Streets.  In  portions  of  this  district  the  houses  are  highly  un- 
sanitary and  are  beyond  repair — positively  unsafe  and  dangerous 
to  health  and  morality.  There  are  many  ways  in  which  a  dis- 
trict of  this  sort  can  be  treated.  First  it  may  be  neglected,  as 
it  is  today  by  health  and  tenement  departments  that  are  over 
worked  and  unable  to  deal  with  a  problem  so  large  and  apparently 
hopeless.  In  the  second  place  an  attempt  might  be  made  to 
repair  the  district,  either  at  the  cost  of  the  city  or  by  the  city  at 
the  cost  of  the  owners  (the  Birmingham,  England,  method),  or 
the  owners  might  be  ordered  to  make  the  necessary  repairs  at 
their  own  expense.  Special  powers  would  be  necessary  if  either 
of  the  first  two  programs  were  undertaken.  The  third  program 
would  undoubtedly  result  in  a  patch-work  reform.  No  one  of 
these  programs  is  adequate  to  meet  the  conditions  of  this  section. 
They  are  merely  palliative  and  might  reduce,  but  would  not 
destroy,  the  disgrace  of  this  district. 


Yard  of  negro  tenement  house  on  Street.  This  house  exempli- 
fied extreme  conditions  of  bad  repair  and  maintenance.  The  hydrant  in  the 
foreground  serves  many  families.  Just  beyond  it,  not  shown  here,  are 
several  yard  water-closets.  The  yard  is  dangerously  littered  with  refuse, 
much  of  it  organic  matter  dangerous  to  health.  The  cellar  is  in  like  condi- 
tion/ In  many  cities  a  house  of  this  character  would  be  condemned  as  unfit 
for  human  habitation. 


SLUM  CLEARANCE  AND  MUNICIPAL  REHOUSING  51 

SECTION     II— SLUM     CLEARANCE    AND     MUNICIPAL 

REHOUSING. 

Municipal  Housing. 

Another  possibility  would  be  the  complete  destruction  of  the 
entire  area  by  the  city.  This  might  be  done  with  the  intention 
of  replacing  the  area  with  a  park,  as  was  done  by  New  York 
City,  for 'example,  in  the  case  of  the  notorious  Mulberry  Bend, 
or  the  area  could  be  rebuilt  by  the  city  with  municipal  dwellings 
or  other  buildings.  The  cost  of  the  first  half  of  this  latter  pro- 
gram renders  it  undesirable  if  there  are  cheaper  alternatives 
equally  effective.  As  for  the  latter,  municipal  building  of  un- 
sanitary areas,  even  in  London  and  Liverpool  where  municipal 
housing  is  an  accepted  form  of  municipal  business,  has  never 
proved  a  paying  undertaking,  chiefly  for  the  following  reasons: 

Why  English  Examples  Do  Not  Pay. 

1.  The   original   cost   of  the   land   and   destruction   of  the 
insanitary   houses   is   either   prohibitive   or  places   a   too   heavy 
initial  charge  upon  the  undertaking. 

2.  It  has  been  found  impossible  to  build  municipal  tene- 
ments on  the  same  area  to  house  healthfully  as  many  persons  as 
were  dishoused  by  the  slum  clearance  scheme. 

3.  The  original  dis-housed  population  tends  to  crowd  with 
other  families  in  small  tenements  while  the  area  is  being  re-built, 
and  does  not  return  to  the  new  buildings  when  completed,  largely 
because  the  rents  are  inevitably  higher  than  they  were  for  the 
original  accommodation. 

4.  It  becomes  profitable  for  a  low  class  of  speculators  to 
buy  unsanitary  property  and  hold  it  unrepaired  in  the  hope  that 
the  government  will  purchase  it  for  a  slum  clearance  scheme  of 
this  sort,  paying  them,  as  is  usually  the  case,  more  for  the' land 
and  buildings  than  they  are  really  worth. 

Municipal  Housing  Not  Expedient  in  America. 

Even  if  these  arguments  were  not  operative  in  American 
cities,  municipal  housing  would  for  the  present  at  least  be  un- 
desirable, both  because  it  is  unnecessary  (private  capital  can  be 
relied  upon  to  provide  the  necessary  accommodations)  and  also 
because  in  our  American  cities  we  cannot  guarantee  the  con- 
tinued employment  of  expert  men  to  operate  a  municipal  housing 


54  THE  NEWARK  CITY  PLAN  COMMISSION 

would  be  scattered ;  their  movements  should  be  watched  by  the 
police.  Where  there  is  ground  for  such  treatment  they  should 
be  sent  to  reformatories  or  hospitals,  and  under  proper  super- 
vision after  release  should  be  given  a  fresh  start  at  moral  living. 

SECTION  V— STREET  EXTENSION  AND  WIDENING. 

From  the  housing  point  of  view  the  remodelling  of  portions 
of  the  city  already  built  may  have  a  marked  effect  upon  the 
dwelling  conditions  of  the  population  in  quarters  so  treated. 
In  any  district  in  which  streets  are  widened  or  trees  or  grass 
strips  are  placed,  there  is  impetus  for  the  remodelling  of  old 
buildings  along  the  improved  street.  In  the  absence  of  proper 
housing  legislation  such  remodelling  is  likely  to  be  purely  super- 
ficial. A  new  brick  face  may  be  placed  on  an  old  and  insanitary 
building:  the  dark  room  may  remain.  Still  under  any  conditions, 
the  occupants  profit  by  an  increase  of  light  and  air  from  the 
widened  street  by  the  purification  of  air  where  trees  are  placed, 
and  by  the  increased  beauty  of  their  outlook. 


In   the   city's    large    residential    areas   are    a    great    many    spots    as    attractive 

as   this. 


A  garden   in  the  rear  of 


Street.     A  well   kept  grass   plot,   neat 


walks  and  a  flower  border  with  a  few  well  cared  for  trees  render  this  house 
and   garden   peculiarly   desirable  for   home   life. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  HOUSING  PROBLEM  AND  CITY 
PLANNING  OF  NEW  AREAS 

SECTION  I— THE  BEST  TYPE  OF  HOUSING. 
The  Tenement. 

The  type  of  city  plan  which  should  be  secured  for  your  city 
must  depend  upon  our  answer  to  the  question,  what  is  the  most 
desirable  dwelling  place,  the  tenement  or  the  cottage?  In  the 
cities  of  the  Northeastern  States  we  have  become  accustomed  to 
the  tenement  house  and  do  not  ordinarily  question  its  social 
utility.  There  is  scarcely  a  city  in  the  country  that  is  attempting 
in  any  well-considered  way  to  eliminate  the  tenement  house, 
yet  there  can  be  no  question  but  that  it  is  an  undesirable  place 
of  residence  for  families  with  children.  Even  for  the  childless 
family,  the  most  expensive  apartment  house  as  well  as  the 
cheapest  tenement  may  constitute  an  undesirable  environment 
because  of  the  facility  with  which  diseases  may  pass  from  one 
apartment  to  its  neighbor  through  the  common  hall  and  through 
the  mediation  of  vermin  which  pass  easily  from  one  suite  to 
another.  Where  people  live  in  apartments  also  there  is  con- 
centration of  population  and  thus  much  traffic  in  the  neighbor- 
ing streets  which  keeps  the  air  full  of  dust  and  noise  and  thus 
renders  apartment  living  unhealthful  and  unpleasant.  The  sounds 
from  neighboring  apartments  frequently  make  rest  and  quiet 
impossible.  True  privacy  and  solitude,  though  very  important 
to  the  growth  of  the  moral  individual,  are  difficult  to  obtain. 
For  the  family  with  children,  the  apartment  is  still  less  desirable. 
It  becomes  impossible  for  the  mother  of  a  family  to  choose  her 
children's  associates,  to  prevent  her  child  from  coming  in  con- 
tact with  children  or  adults  of  unwholesome  character  who  may 
reside  within  the  same  building.  The  mother  cannot  supervise 
the  play  of  her  child  when  outside  of  the  apartment,  and  in 
general  the  atmosphere  of  the  tenement  or  apartment  house  is 
one  destined  to  create  a  race  of  adults  that  are  unhealthful,  puny, 
and  socially,  highly  artificialized. 


56  THE  NEWARK  CITY  PLAN  COMMISSION 

The  Cottage. 

In  the  cottage,  however,  it  is  possible  to  obtain  all  necessary 
privacy  for  true  home  life  and  personal  development.  The  re- 
duced dust  of  suburban  communities  and  the  larger  penetration 
of  sunlight  makes  cottage  homes  healthier  living  places  for 
infants  and  growing  children.  The  mother  of  the  family,  while 
at  work  in  her  kitchen  can  supervise  the  play  and  the  associates 
of  her  child  in  the  garden.  The  adults  of  the  family,  if  so  in- 
clined, can  profit  in  health  at  least  and  sometimes  in  economy 
by  cultivating  a  garden  outside  of  working  hours.  The  children 
gain  the  advantage  and  education  that  comes  from  daily  contact 
with  the  things  of  nature,  especially  through  the  garden.  It  is 
probable,  therefore,  that  at  least  for  families  with  children,  the 
suburban  home  is  preferable  to  the  tenement. 

SECTION  II— MEANS  OF  PROMOTING  SUBURBAN 

HOUSING. 

General  Statement. 

It  is,  however,  impossible  to  house  the  population  of  large 
cities  in  cottage  homes  unless  such  homes  can  be  constructed  \o 
rent  for  a  price  (including  both  the  cost  of  land  and  of  the  daily 
transit  to  and  from  work)  no  higher  than  the  same  family  would 
pay  for  an  equal  number  of  rooms  within  the  city  tenement. 
Furthermore,  families  working  within  the  city  will  not  live  in 
the  suburbs  if  a  too  large  proportion  of  their  working  day  is  con- 
sumed in  transit  to  and  from  such  residence.  If  any  working 
member  of  such  family  is  employed  for  ten  or  twelve  hours  a  day 
in  the  heart  of  the  city,  the  residence  should  not  be  placed  more 
than  one-half  hour's  ride  from  the  place  of  business.  To  secure 
cottage  homes  therefore  for  the  working  classes  of  our  cities,  it  is 
essential  to  have  rapid  and  cheap  transit,  serving  satisfactorily 
all  of  the  possible  outlying  residential  section,  and  it  is  equally 
necessary  to  have  an  abundance  of  cheap  land  and  to  make  pos- 
sible the  cheap  construction  of  cottage  homes. 

Transit  and  Radial  Streets. 

The  housing  conditions  of  a  city  are  affected  materially  by 
the  street  plan.  If  suburbs  are  not  accessible  directly  and 
cheaply  from  the  centres  of  industry  and  commerce,  population 
will  tend  to  crowd  in  tenements  near  the  heart  of  the  city. 
Suburbs  are  rendered  especially  accessible  by  means  of  broad, 


MEANS  OF  PROMOTING  SUBURBAN  HOUSING      57 

direct,  radial  streets,  often  termed  the  arteries  of  the  city.  Many 
American  cities  are  built  upon  a  gridiron  plan  of  streets  which 
renders  certain  suburbs  peculiarly  remote  because  accessible  only 
by  following  the  two  legs  of  a  triangle  instead  of  following 
directly  upon  the  hypotenuse.  Newark,  however,  is  especially 
favored  in  its  original  plan  in  that  it  has  a  number  of  radial 
streets  leading  from  the  centre  of  the  city,  of  which  the  most 
important  are  Bloomfield  Avenue,  Springfield  Avenue,  and  Clin- 
ton Avenue. 

Co-operating  With  Surrounding  Towns. 

Newark  is  fortunate  also  in  that  it  is  surrounded  on  three  sides 
by  an  abundance  of  desirable  residential  land.  There  is  there- 
fore plenty  of  room  for  expansion.  Unfortunately  this  land  at 
present  is  not  (with  the  exception  of  Vailsburg)  incorporated 
within  the  political  boundaries  of  the  city.  It  will  be  utterly 
impossible  for  Newark  to  house  its  working  population  in  indi- 
vidual homes  unless  the  city  and  all  of  its  contiguous  suburbs, 
within  Essex  County  at  least,  can  be  treated  as  a  single  political 
unit  in  the  preparation  of  street,  district,  block,  and  lot  plans. 
The  people  in  these  contiguous  communities  very  largely  work 
in  Newark.  Considerable  economy  in  the  planning  of  city  and 
suburbs  as  well  as  in  the  administration  of  all  city  institutions 
and  of  private  business,  could  be  effected  if  the  suburbs  could 
be  incorporated  in  political  Newark.  If  such  incorporation  is 
not  immediately  possible,  it  might  still  be  feasible  to  establish 
a  city  plan  commission  for  Metropolitan  Newark  or  for  the  whole 
of  Essex  County,  which  could  handle  the  entire  problem  of  the 
city's  growth  as  a  unit.  Such  a  program  has  been  suggested  for 
Metropolitan  Boston  and  is  partially  operative  today. 

The  difficulties  of  combining  many  small  communities  into 
a  single  co-operative  group  are  so  great  that  it  would  be  best,  if 
possible,  to  follow  the  other  alternative  and  promote  the  early 
incorporation  of  all  of  the  suburbs. 

Methods  of  Discouraging  Tenement  Building. 

One  means  of  encouraging  cottage  construction  is  to  dis- 
courage tenement  building.  The  provisions  already  suggested 
see  pages  29,  30,  31  and  39)  for  incorporation  in  the  State 
Tenement  House  Act  or  Local  Building  Code  would  have  this 
effect  in  some  degree,  for  if  we  require  tenement  houses  over 
four  stories  high  to  be  constructed  fireproof  throughout,  as  do 
Philadelphia,  Pittsburgh,  Scranton,  St.  Paul,  and  St.  Louis,  and 
require  the  three  or  four-story  tenement  to  have  brick  exterior, 


58  THE  NEWARK  CITY  PLAN  COMMISSION 

stairs,  halls,  and  fire  towers,  investors  in  house  property  will 
construct  houses  less  than  three  stories  in  height,  because  they 
will  be  comparatively  cheaper  in  cost  per  unit  of  construction. 
The  Massachusetts  towns,  Belmont,  Arlington,  and  Winthrop, 
have  eliminated  the  three-story  tenement  house  for  the  future 
by  requiring  that  every  tenement  house  three  stories  in  height 
shall  be  fireproof  throughout.  The  cities  above  mentioned  are 
all  of  them  peculiarly  free  from  high  tenement  houses. 

Building  and  Loan  Associations. 

The  most  important  institution  in  America  for  the  promotion 
of  home  buildings  is  the  Building  and  Loan  Association.  These 
associations  are  co-operative  in  character,  formed  and  operated 
generally  by  men  of  modest  means,  artisans,  mechanics,  clerks, 
small  shop  keepers  and  teachers.  Each  contributes  in  regular 
small  installments  to  the  share  capital  (e.  g.  $1.00  a  month  to  a 
share  of  stock  the  ultimate  value  of  which  is  $200),  and  each  may 
borrow  from  the  common  funds  on  the  security  of  real  estate  or 
of  shares  of  stock.  Voting  is  democratic  and  equal.  The  move- 
ment has  adopted  as  its  motto  "The  American  Home,  the  Safe- 
guard of  American  Liberties,"  and  has  quite  consistently  loaned 
its  funds  to  its  members  to  facilitate  home  building  or  home 
purchase. 

In  1911  there  were  6,099  such  associations  recorded  in  the 
United  States,  with  a  membership  of  2,333,000,  assets  of  $1,031,- 
000,000,  and  annual  receipts  of  $708,185,000.  New  Jersey  stands 
third  among  the  States  of  the  Union  in  membership  in  these 
associations,  having  563  societies  with  198,067  members  (ex- 
ceeded only  by  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio)  ;  192  associations  (over 
one-third  of  the  total  number  for  the  State)  are  situated  in 
Newark.  The  good  fortune  enjoyed  by  your  city  in  being  com- 
paratively free  from  high  tenements  is  probably  chiefly  traceable 
to  the  many  building  and  loan  associations  which  have  placed 
their  loans  almost  exclusively  for  the  construction  of  one,  two 
and  three-family  houses.  Over  $30,000,000  is  at  present  invested 
in  such  mortgage  loans  in  Newark. 

More  building  and  loan  associations  are  not  needed  in  New- 
ark at  present.  Improvement  in  their  method  will,  however, 
facilitate  the  spread  of  the  most  desirable  local  types  of  housing. 
More  general  affiliation  with  the  state  and  national  leagues  is 
essential.  Under  the  able  presidency  of  Mr.  Chas.  O'Connor 
Hennessey,  the  United  States  League  is  studying  this  year  the 
ways  in  which  local  associations  can  promote  housing  reform. 
Only  a  high  degree  of  organization  can  make  the  adoption  of 


run  ZONE  SYSTEM 59 

improved  methods  speedy  and  general.  While  awaiting  the  spe- 
cific report  of  the  National  League  the  following  suggestions 
should  be  made: 

That  local  associations  be  made  conscious  of  the  existence 
of  a  housing  problem. 

That,  as  a  result,  they  may  be  more  considerate  of  borrowers 
(who  constitute  only  one-fifth  to  one-fourth  of  their  membership) 
instead  of  considering  chiefly,  as  at  present,  the  means  of  increas- 
ing- the  profit  to  lending  members. 

That  the  ''gross  premium"  plan  which  is  widely  prevalent 
be  so  modified  as  to  render  the  distribution  of  burdens  and  of 
profits  equitably  or  be  abandoned. 

That  means  of  reducing  interest  rates — which  are  high  in 
the  associations  of  Newark  (usually  6%) — and  of  abolishing 
premiums  of  all  sorts  be  seriously  studied. 

That  preference  in  the  granting  of  loans  be  given  builders 
of  single-family  houses ;  that  two-family  houses  have  second  pref- 
erence and  three-family  houses  be  loaned  upon  only  after  bids 
for  loans  for  home  acquisition  are  all  filled. 

SECTION  III— THE  ZONE  SYSTEM. 
Tenements  in  Residential  Districts. 

The  measures  above  indicated  would  tend  to  eliminate  from 
your  city  all  new  construction  of  high  tenement  houses  except 
for  apartment  houses  of  the  well-to-do  classes.  It  would  not, 
however,  prevent  any  man  from  constructing  such  apartment 
house  on  any  lot  in  the  city  or  suburb  which  he  might  chance  to 
own.  It  would  still  be  possible  for  a  man  to  placed  high  apart- 
ment house  in  the  midst  of  a  block  of  private  residences,  as  is 
now  being  done^  in  the  Roseville  section  of  your  city,  shutting 
out  light  from  his  neighbors5  homes,  marring  the  beauty  of  their 
outlook  with  the  ugly  back  of  his  building  and  bringing  into 
that  street  a  class  of  population  of  different  tastes  and  perhaps 
of  a  type  from  which  neighboring  parents  would  wish  to  protect 
their  children. 

Introduction  of  Tenements  Upon  Consent  of  Neighbors. 

The  city  of  Calgary,  in  Alberta,  attempts  to  meet  this  diffi- 
culty by  providing  in  its  local  building  code  that  no  owner  shall 
build  an  apartment  house  within  any  city  block  unless  two- 
thirds  of  the  other  owners  in  the  block  give  their  assent.  This 
provision  is,  however,  inequitable  in  that  it  does  not  give  all  the 


60  THE  NEWARK  CITY  PLAN  COMMISSION 

persons  who  are  interested  in  the  erection  of  such  apartment 
house  an  opportunity  to  vote.  The  owner  of  the  property  across 
the  street  would  be  equally  affected  by  the  building  of  such 
apartment  house,  so  also  in  less  degree  would  the  passerby  whose 
outlook  may  be  marred  by  its  erection. 

German  Zone  System. 

To  protect  a  suburban  community  from  the  intrusion  of 
undesirable  building  types,  it  might  be  desirable  here,  as  in 
German  cities,  to  establish  the  zone  system  of  building.  The 
essential  feature  of  the  zone  system  is  that  a  city  is  divided  into 
districts  in  which  building  types  are  permanently  fixed.  In  the 
heart  of  the  city  the  highest  buildings  may  be  erected  (six  stories, 
in  the  case  of  Vienna)  ;  in  the  next  district,  near  the  centre  of 
the  city,  buildings  may  be  erected  one  story  less  high  and  perhaps 
covering  a  smaller  proportion  of  their  lot.  In  the  third  district 
will  be  found  again  a  reduced  height  and  a  reduced  percentage 
of  lot  area  to  be  covered.  In  outlying  districts,  contiguous  build- 
ing tenement  construction  or  building  to  the  lot  line  is  not  per- 
mitted, and  frequently  only  40  per  cent  of  a  lot  may  be  covered. 

The  Existing  Building  Districts  of  Newark. 

Examination  of  the  present  development  of  your  city  shows 
a  great  variety  in  building  types  and  a  large  number  of  districts 
of  each  type  as  well  as  a  large  number  of  mixed  districts.  For 
example,  the  three  or  four-story  tenement  house  and  the  single- 
family  house  converted  to  use  of  two  or  more  families,  prevail 
in  Wards  4  and  5,  in  those  portions  of  Ward  12  which  lie  nearest 
to  the  centre  of  the  city,  and  may  be  found  quite  generally  within 
the  fire  limits.  There  are  several  sections  devoted  to  the  estates 
of  the  well-to-do  quite  sharply  separated  from  the  homes  of  their 
neighbors  of  lesser  means.  Older  houses  of  this  type  are  on  and 
near  High  Street,  in  Ward  7,  for  example,  and  in  parts  of  Wards 
8,  9,  11,  and  16.  The  brick  tenement  house  of  three  to  five 
stories  is  frequent  within  the  fire  limits  on  the  main  arteries  of 
the  city,  but  except  for  the  Prince  Street  district  and  the  Italian 
district  of  Garside  Street  and  vicinity,  new  brick  tenements  are, 
with  very  few  exceptions,  placed  within  one  block  of  the  main 
arteries  of  the  city.  There  is  however  a  new  growth  of  such 
brick  tenement  houses  on  the  northwest  side  of  Eastside  Park: 
between  Oliver  Street,  Warwick  Street,  Jefferson  Street  and 
Eastside  Park,  23  such  tenements  have  been  built  within  the  last 
eight  years.  Many  more  have  been  re-erected  recently  on  the 


THE  ZQA'£  SYSTEM 


residential  streets  between  Lafayette  and  Market.  Brick  tene- 
ments are  increasing  in  numbers,  but  it  is  evident  that  they  can 
be  restricted  very  easily  to  specific  districts  and  that  such  re- 
striction will  create  no  hardships.  There  are  only  four  brick 
tenement  houses  in  Vailsburg,  all  of  which  were  constructed  on 
the  main  street.  The  exclusion  of  brick  tenements  from  this 
quarter  would  not  harm  either  the  land  owners  or  other  citizens. 

The  Wooden  Three-Decker. 

The  predominant  form  of  tenement  construction  in  Essex 
County  and  especially  in  Newark  is  the  three-story  frame  tene- 
ment house.  These  also  tend  to  congregate  in  specific  districts. 
Old-style  three-deckers,  lacking  much  of  the  modern  equipment, 
will  be  found  within  the  fire  limits,  especially  in  districts  of  the 
character  of  Wards  5,  7,  12  and  15.  Today  such  tenement  houses 
are  not  being  built  within  the  fire  limits,  due  to  legal  restriction 
(the  map  shows  one  or  two  exceptions  on  Commerce,  Camfield 
and  Cedar  Streets,  granted  either  before  present  limits  were 
defined  or  on  appeal).  Only  25  new  frame  tenements  have  been 
built  in  Wards  5  and  12  since  1904  between  Hamburg  Place  and 
the  river,  but  24  have  been  built  within  one  block  of  Eastside 
Park  within  the  same  period,  and  25  more  between  Elm  Road  and 
Hamburg  Place.  A  small  zone  of  three-story  buildings  is  form- 
ing naturally  at  this  point.  The  chief  zone  of  the  three-decker 
follows  Bergen  Street  through  Wards  16,  14  and  6.  About  one- 
third  of  all  the  new  frame  tenement  houses  in  the  city  are  writhin 
three  blocks  of  Bergen  Street.  Within  ten  blocks  in  each  direc- 
tion from  the  intersection  of  Sixteenth  Avenue  and  Tenth  Street 
lie  approximately  80%  of  all  the  new  frame  tenements  of  the  city. 
(This  district  includes  the  lower  end  of  13th  AVard,  14th  and  16th 
Wards  and  small  portions  of  Wards  6  and  9.)  This  is  the  major 
zone  of  the  three-decker.  Only  56  frame  tenements  have  been 
constructed  in  Vailsburg  since  1904,  but  of  these  36  were  erected 
within  the  past  year  (photos.  Nos.  20  and  21).  These  are  mostly 
on  Brookdale  Avenue  and  Norwood  Street.  It  is  not  necessary 
to  inflict  the  three-decker  upon  Vailsburg;  the  further  spread  of 
this  type  of  house  in  that  section  should  be  checked.  Similarly 
the  three-decker  is  not  intruding  in  Ward  8.  There  have  been 
until  recently  comparatively  few  built  north  and  east  of  Orange 
Street  ;  yet  the  figures  for  1912  show  that  plans  were  filed  within 
eight  months  for  nine  on  Mount  Prospect  Avenue  and  eleven  on 
Chester  Avenue  between  Erie  Place  and  Hinsdale  Place.  A 
photograph  (No.  18)  shows  how  the  erection  of  two  such  build- 
ings on  Mount  Prospect  Avenue  has  marred  the  beauty  of  what 


62  THE  NEWARK  CITY  PLAN  COMMISSION 

has  been  your  most  beautiful  residence  street.  The  three-decker, 
if  permitted  to  enter  this  district,  will  spoil  its  beauty,  its  safety, 
and  will  hurt  land  values.  Their  erection  in  this  quarter  should 
be  prohibited. 

The  Two-Family  House. 

The  two-family  house  has  been  described  in  the  report  of 
the  British  Board  of  Trade  on  Working  Class  Rents,  Housing, 
and  Retail  Prices  in  American  Cities  as  the  "best  type"  of  dwell- 
ing for  the  working  class  in  Newark  in  that  it  has  all  of  the 
advantages  of  the  three-family  house  and  yet  has  more  privacy 
and  better  upkeep.  There  is  a  great  deal  to  be  said  in  favor 
of  the  two-flat  house,  which  fortunately  is  to  be  found  in  con- 
siderable numbers  in  the  outer  wards  of  your  city.  In  the  two- 
flat  house,  the  disadvantages  of  the  larger  tenement  are  reduced 
to  the  minimum.  Most  of  the  advantages  of  the  cottage  home, 
save  that  of  ownership  (for  one  family  at  least)  and  of  garden 
are  to  be  had  in  the  two-flat  house.  It  is  undoubtedly  a  highly 
desirable  form  of  housing  for  a  large  class  of  the  population.  If 
its  safety  from  conflagration  were  increased  by  the  use  of  incom- 
bustible shingles  in  every  instance,  if  its  beauty  were  enhanced 
by  building  the  third  half-story  over  the  ugly  truncated  ell 
(photo.  Nos.  10  and  20),  if  such  houses  were  always  at  least  10 
feet  from  their  neighbors  (preferably  at  a  larger  distance),  if 
they  were  built  less  narrow  than  they  now  are,  with  two  rooms 
fairly  square  in  shape  and  abreast,  such  houses  would  make 
very  desirable  homes.  Improvement  in  the  architectural  design 
of  the  two-family  house  might  be  promoted  by  the  circulation 
through  either  private  or  public  bodies  of  free  plans  of  more 
pleasing  types  built  in  othe"r  cities  (much  as  the  Worcester 
Savings  Bank  has  distributed  within  its  city  free  plans  of  private 
houses  in  the  hope  of  replacing  the  three-decker).  A  satisfactory 
type  of  house,  however,  is  not  possible  until  the  prevailing  shape 
of  lot  is  changed  (see  page  68).  The  two-family  house  is  to  be 
found  especially  in  Wards  8,  9,  13  and  16  and  in  Vailsburg. 
Both  the  two-flat  house  and  the  three-decker  are  to  be  found 
in  considerable  quantity  in  the  other  suburbs  of  Newark.  But 
few  large  districts,  fortunately,  have  been  formed  so  it  would  be 
possible  with  the  abundance  of  vacant  land  which  characterizes 
these  suburbs  to  have  the  metropolitan  district  zoned  in  such  a 
way  as  to  separate  these  houses  from  the  single  family  house 
which  we  wish  to  encourage. 

The  Application  of  the  Zone  System  to  Newark. 

A  zone  system  on  the  German  principle  could  not  be  applied 
in  political  Newark  as  it  stands  today.  In  a  very  few  years  all 


House  at 


Street.     Acquired  from  its  builder  for  less  than  $1,500 


or  the  equivalent  of  a  rent  of  $11.00  a  month.  The  garden  was  peculiarly 
beautiful  late  in  September,  when  this  photograph  was  taken.  This  shows  a 
possible  alternative  for  the  tenement  house,  a  home  with  beauty  as  well  as 
privacy  for  working  class  families. 


THE  ZONE  SYSTHM 63 

the  vacant  land  in  the  outlying  wards  will  be  well  covered  with 
buildings,  and  unless  new  suburbs  are  incorporated,  the  city  must 
grow  up  to  tenement  houses.  Already  the  number  and  per- 
centage of  tenement  houses  is  large  and  increasing.  This  tend- 
ency cannot  be  restrained  unless  more  land  can  be  secured  for 
urban  expansion.  If,  however,  a  plan  may  be  drawn  for  Newark 
and  its  suburbs,  a  zone  system  would,  I  think,  be  both  practicable 
and  desirable. 

The  constitutionality  of  the  zone  system  has  been  tested  in 
Boston,  which  has  two  zones,  one  for  buildings  125  feet  high 
maximum,  and  the  other  with  a  maximum  of  80  feet.  A  zone 
system  as  applied  to  Newark  should,  however,  restrict  tenement 
houses  to  a  district  corresponding  very  roughly  with  the  fire 
limits  of  the  present  city,  permitting  apartment  houses  also  per- 
haps upon  certain  radial  avenues  of  the  city  and  at  sub-centres, 
but  probably  in  no  other  quarters.  If  tenement  houses  were  per- 
mitted upon  the  radial  streets,  it  might  prove  desirable  to  permit 
them  to  be  placed  upon  all  of  the  lots  of  such  blocks.  Otherwise 
the  dwellers  in  smaller  houses  of  the  immediate  vicinity  would 
face  the  ugly  backs  of  the  apartment  row  on  the  avenue.*  It 
is  probably  better  that  the  tenement  zone  should  not  follow  the 
present  fire  limits  of  the  city  and  the  radial  avenues  at  all  parts, 
but  the  exact  limits  of  the  tenement  zone  can  be  determined  only 
after  a  most  rigid  and  painstaking  examination  of  the  present 
tenement  quarters  of  the  city  as  indicated  in  the  residential  map, 
of  the  directions  of  growth  of  the  tenement  district,  as  indicated 
in  the  map  of  new  law  brick  tenements  for  the  last  eight  years 
and  with  reference  also  to  the  general  plan  for  the  city.  Their 
determination  must  also  involve  a  thorough  investigation  of  the 
methods  and  experience  of  German  cities  in  the  establishment  of 
building  zones.  If,  however,  the  entire  metropolitan  district  of 
Newark  were  planned  by  the  same  authority,  it  would  be  possi- 
ble to  restrict  the  four  or  more  storied  tenement  very  narrowly 
in  the  district  roughly  defined,  to  restrict  the  three-story  tene- 
ment house  largely  to  the  districts  in  which  they  are  now  found, 
to  restrict  the  two-family  house  equally  to  specified  quarters  of 
the  city  in  which  it  is  now  most  largely  found,  and  probably  also 
to  specific  outlying  suburban  districts,  and  yet  leave  the  major 
portion  of  Vailsburg  and  the  contiguous  suburbs  of  Newark  for 
development  in  single  or  multiple  construction  of  one-family 
dwellings.  No  zone  system  for  the  residential  districts  can  be 
established  with  success,  however,  unless  the  factory  quarter 

*An  alternative  suggestion  is  the  establishment  of  competent  architectural  censorship 
of  apartment  houses  on  radial  streets.  Brookline  and  Cambridge,  two  of  Boston's  suburbs, 
have  developed  several  artistic  and  unobjectionable  types  of  apartment  houses  .on  radial 
streets  through  residence  quarters. 


64  THE  NEWARK  CITY  PLAN  COMMISSION 


is  determined,  unless  that  quarter  is  rendered  accessible  by  the 
provision  of  proper  transit  facilities  from  all  parts  of  the  city, 
!and  unless  the  suburbs  are  opened  up  and  controlled  in  their 
development  by  the  city. 

The  Factory  Zone. 

A  zone  system  will  inevitably  involve  the  districting  of 
factories  if  the  welfare  of  the  community  is  to  be  conserved. 
Where  factories  and  tenements  are  mingled,  the  gases  and  smoke 
may  render  living  conditions  unhealthful  or  unpleasant.  German 
'cities  very  generally  restrict  their  factories  to  quarters  of  the 
city  in  which  the  available  transportation  facilities  are  of  the 
best,  and  from  which  the  prevailing  winds  will  carry  away  the 
smoke,  dust,  gases  and  noise.  Newark  is  fortunate  in  having  a 
very  large  district  especially  adapted  to  factory  use,  where  land 
is  cheap,  where  the  best  transportation  facilities  are  possible,  and 
where  the  prevailing  winds  will  ordinarily  carry  the  smoke  and 
gases  away  from  residence  quarters.  This  district  is  of  course 
the  marshland  lying  to  the  southeast  of  the  city.  An  exceptional 
opportunity  is  here  offered  for  the  development  of  a  factory 
zone  of  the  most  efficient  order,  and  from  such  zone  all  dwell- 
ings may  be  permanently  excluded.  The  present  factories  and 
workshops  in  the  heart  of  the  city  need  not  be  transferred  to 
such  a  zone  unless  they  constitute  a  public  nuisance.  It  will 
probably  be  desirable  also  to  permit  workshops  of  specified  char- 
acter along  the  radials  of  the  tenement  zone  of  your  city ;  many 
of  the  clothing  trades,  for  example,  might  be  permitted  within  the 
tenement  zone,  or  mixed  zones  (for  factories  and  tenements) 
might  be  established  within  the  tenement  zone. 

If  the  marsh  district  is  to  have  a  large  industrial  develop- 
ment, it  will  be  necessary  to  determine  as  early  as  possible  what 
streets  shall  be  enlarged  and  used  as  radials  to  carry  the  work- 
ing population  from  their  place  of  work  to  the  suburbs  lying  to 
the  west  (Irvington,  etc.).  Peddie  Street  might  be  made  to 
serve  for  this  purpose,  also  Alpine  Street  extended,  or  Chestnut 
Street  with  Clinton  Avenue,  South  Street  with  Waverly  Avenue, 
Hamburg  Place  with  Ferry  Street.  A  subway  underneath  and 
extended  to  the  north  might  render  the  district  accessible  to 
residential  Bloomfield  and  Belleville. 

SECTION  IV— MOVING  THE  FACTORIES  OUT. 
The  Advantages. 

One  other  adjustment  of  the  factory  and  cottage  home  is 
ordinarily  termed  industrial  decentralization.  In  England  espe- 


REDUCING  THH  COST  OF  HOUSE  LOTS  65 

cially  housing  reformers  have  agitated  for  the  removal  of  fac- 
tories from  cities  into  the  open  country,  where  land  is  cheap  and 
abundant,  where  transportation  facilities  can  very  frequently  be 
rendered  of  the  best,  and  where  each  worker  can  live  in  a  cot- 
tage home. 

The  Industrial  Community. 

Such  industrial  communities  may  be  established  co-opera- 
tively, as-  in  the  case  of  the  British  ''Garden  City,"  or  may  be 
established  by  the  owners  of  factories,  as  is  the  current  American 
practice,  the  houses  in  this  case  being  erected  by  the  manu- 
facturer either  to  rent  or  sell  on  easy  terms  to  his  employees 
(e.  g.,  The  Draper  Company,  Hopedale,  Mass.,  The  Plymouth 
Cordage  Company,  North  Plymouth,  Mass.,  the  Ludlow  Manu- 
facturing Associates,  Springfield,  Mass.),  or  else  the  employer 
may  buy  the  land  in  quantity,  divide  it  into  small  lots  and. sell 
on  easy  installments  to  his  employees,  who  may  build  homes 
of  their  own  design. 

Possible  Only  with  Incorporation  of  Suburbs. 

It  is  obvious  that  industrial  decentralization  is  impossible 
in  the  political  Newark  of  today  on  any  large  scale,  though  the 
few  factories  on  the  Belleville  line  illustrate  the  possibility  of 
such  decentralization  on  a  small  scale.  Preferably  where  in- 
dustries are  decentralized  they  should  still  congregate  in  small 
sub-centers,  so  arranged  that  they  shall  not  reduce  the  amenity 
of  living  conditions  in  their  vicinity,  but  may  still  make  it  possi- 
ble for  the  worker  to  live  in  a  cottage  on  cheap  land  near  his 
work.  If  Newark  should  incorporate  its  suburbs,  it  might  be 
desirable  to  establish  industrial  sub-centers  of  this  sort  on  the 
outskirts  of  some  of  the  suburbs,  making  possible  the  cottage 
home  and  proximity  to  work  for  the  employee  and  the  advantage 
of  efficient  help  and  the  trade  and  social  advantages  of  the  city 
for  the  employer.  The  possibility  of  such  decentralization  and 
its  advantages  should  be  considered  by  your  local  Board  of 
Trade  in  case  of  the  incorporation  of  suburbs. 

SECTION  V— REDUCING  THE  COST  OF  HOUSE  LOTS. 
The  Cost  of  Suburban  Land. 

Cottage  construction  for  working  men  is  impossible  at  pres- 
ent wage  rates  unless  land  can  be  procured  which  is  both  acces- 
sible to  work  and  cheap.  Much  of  the  suburban  land  in  Ameri- 


66  THE  XEIVARK  CITY  PLAN  COMMISSION 


can  cities  is  being  held  vacant  today  by  speculators  in  the  hope 
of  reaping  a  large  increase  in  land  values.  Accessible  land  is  not 
easy  to  procure  in  small  parcels.  There  are  several  ways,  how- 
ever, in  which  it  may  be  rendered  more  available. 

Municipal  Land  Ownership. 

German  cities,  for  example,  quite  generally  buy  up  their 
suburbs  and  then  sell  the  land  in  small  parcels  under  heavy  re- 
strictions as  to  its  future  use  or  transfer,  or  else  lease  this  land 
to  builders  on  long  term  leases.  By  this  means  suburban  land 
prices  can  be  kept  low,  the  city  receiving  the  unearned  increment 
of  its  land  in  the  form  of  enjoyment  of  its  proper  usage  as  homes 
for  working  people,  instead  of  receiving  it  in  the  form  of  taxes 
or  rents.  The  city  of  Ulm,  Germany,  between  the  years  1891 
and  1909,  thus  purchased  1,208  acres  of  land  for  $1,390,000  and 
sold  404  acres  under  restrictions  for  $1,633,000,  thus  reaping 
from  ^its  transaction  804  acres  of  land  and  $234,000.  As  a  result 
of  this  method  Ulm  has  peculiarly  available  cottage  homes  for 
its  workmen  and  yet  enjoys  the  lowest  tax  rate  in  Wurtemburg. 

Co-operative  Development  of  Land. 

Land  prices  may  be  similarly  restrained  or  communities  can 
'democratically  share  the  advantage  accruing  from  the  unearned 
increment  of  land  by  means  of  co-operative  development.  The 
Co-partnership  Tenant  societies  formed  by  artisans,  mechanics 
and  clerks  in  some  twenty  British  cities  have  thus  bought  patches 
of  suburban  land  from  ten  to  three  hundred  acres  in  size  at  a 
reduced  cost  per  unit:  they  have  developed  such  land  co-opera- 
tively at  reduced  cost  per  unit  for  architect's  services,  the  laying 
of  streets,  plumbing,  sewerage,  etc.,  and  they  have  built  their 
houses  co-operatively,  purchasing  materials  for  fifty  or  more 
houses  at  once  at  materially  reduced  costs.  Each  tenant  pays 
rent  for  his  cottage  home  to  the  Co-partnership  Tenant  Society 
to  which  he  and  his  neighbors  belong  and  receives  his  profits  in 
the  form  of  dividends  on  rents,  paid  not  in  cash  but  in  shares  of 
stock  in  the  community.  The  unearned  increment  of  the  land 
is  the  common  property  of  the  co-operating  members  and  en- 
hances their  profits.  The  Harborne  Co-partnership  Society  in 
its  garden  suburb  on  the  outskirts  of  Birmingham,  England,  was 
formed  by  workingmen  who  today  pay  rents  for  these  cottage 
homes  at  rates  no  higher  than  they  paid  previously  for  unsani- 
tary slum  tenements  in  the  city.  Yet  this  society  is  already  able 
to  pay  8%  dividends  on  rents  in  addition  to  the  regular  5% 
interest  on  invested  capital.  The  British  workingmen  have,  how- 


Houses  in  Vailsburg.  A  peculiarly  attractive  residential  street.  Well- 
paved,  well-treed  and  with  well-kept  estates.  The  houses  are  built  on  35  ft. 
lots,  which  are  wide  enough  to  permit  rooms  of  ample  size  to  be  built  abreast 
and  yet  leave  adequate  space  between  houses.  On  25  ft.  lots  rooms  are 
elongated,  cramped,  more  difficult  to  heat  and  houses  must  be  crowded  too 
closely  together  to  have  adequate  light  and  safety  from  fire. 


REDUCING  THE  COST  OF  HOUSE  LOTS  67 

ever,  had  more  experience  in  co-operative  methods  than  have  the 
American  workingmen.  This  method  of  cheapening  and  facili- 
tating suburban  development  would  not  be  applicable  in  Newark 
without  an  intermediate  period  of  careful  study  of  co-opera- 
tive methods  by  the  workingmen  who  plan  the  association, 
and  preferably  should  not  be  tried  until  they  have  had  some 
experience  in  some  form  of  co-operative  practice.  Garden 
suburbs  of  this  character  in  England  and  in  Germany  have  been 
facilitated  by  cheap  loans  of  capital  from  the  governments  of 
these  countries.  If  capital  could  be  obtained  from  some  source 
at  4%  interest  or  less,  and  if  the  experiment  had  the  backing  of 
influential  citizens  it  would  be  much  easier  to  make  it  a  success. 

The  Land  Tax. 

A  third  means  of  reducing  the  cost  of  land  per  cottage 
would  be  by  use  of  the  land  tax  already  described  on  page  52. 
If  the  tax  were  taken  off  improvements  and  placed  exclusively 
upon  the  land,  the  vacant  land  now  held  in  the  suburbs  by  spec- 
ulators would  be  largely  placed  upon  the  market  or  built  upon.  It 
is  probable  that  land  under  such  conditions  would  be  more  readily 
available  to  modest  purchasers  in  the  suburbs  of  our  cities,  and 
in  so  far  would  make  suburban  housing  possible. 

Reducing  the  Cost  of  Residential  Streets. 

At  present  residential  streets  in  suburban  Newark  are 
largely  unnecessarily  expensive  in  construction.  In  general  it 
must  be  said  that  your  radial  streets  are  if  anything  too  narrow, 
but  that  residential  streets  throughout  the  city  are  rendered 
costly  through  unnecessary  width  and  through  expensive  pro- 
vision of  curbs  and  sidewalks.  Some  residence  streets  must  be 
used  for  a  fairly  large  local  traffic.  Others  are  by  their  very 
nature  and  direction  precluded  from  such  use.  A  careful  study 
of  this  problem  will  indicate  that  in  certain  suburban  residential 
quarters  the  width  of  streets  might  easily  be  reduced  to  the  pro- 
vision of  a  22-foot  or  even  a  16-foot  roadway  flanked  by  grass 
strips.  By  establishing  a  building  line  of  ten  or  more  feet  on 
each  side  of  such  roadway,  it  would  be  then  possible  for  the 
city  to  widen  its  streets  without  serious  expense  if  that  should 
ever  prove  necessary.  The  provision  of  sidewalks  on  both  sides 
of  the  street  is  also  not  invariably  necessary  in  suburban  quar- 
ters of  this  character  where  a  street  is  purely  local.  Under  such 
conditions,  if  the  street  is  developed  only  to  such  degree  as  to 
render  it  adequate  for  its  local  service,  the  cost  of  street  con- 
struction will  constitute  a  much  less  serious  burden  upon  the 
abutting  home  owners. 


68  THE  NEWARK  CITY  PLAN  COMMISSION 

SECTION    VI— REDUCING    COST    OF    HOUSES. 
Reducing  the  Cost  of  Cottage  Construction. 

Suburban  development  will  be  encouraged  not  only  by  keep- 
ing low  the  price  of  land  and  restricting  the  use,  but  also  by  any 
reduction  that  can  be  made  in  the  cost  of  constructing  cottage 
homes  for  working  men.  In  general  it  is  possible  to  construct 
tenement  houses  which  shall  be  cheaper  per  unit  of  accommoda- 
tion than  cottage  homes.  This  would  probably  not  be  true  if  we 
required  tenement  houses  to  be  fireproof.  It  is,  however,  advis- 
able for  citizens  who  are  aware  of  the  urgency  of  their  local 
housing  problems  to  experiment  in  the  construction  of  detached 
and  of  multiple  cottages.  The  best  ability  of  architects  in 
America  has  been  turned  to  monumental  work,  but  the  important 
social  problem  of  designing  cheap  cottages  has  been  almost  over- 
looked by  them.  In  England  the  attention  of  the  best  architects 
has  been  turned  to  this  problem  by  the  holding  of  competitions 
with  prizes  for  the  best  cottage  constructed  for  a  specified  sum 
(£175  in  the  case  of  the  first  cheap  cottages  exhibition,  Garden 
City,  1905).  The  purchase  of  the  houses  constructed  may  be 
guaranteed  by  the  promoting  body.  It  would  be  desirable  to 
interest  more  of  the  best  architects  in  America  in  this  problem, 
for  by  competition  new  arrangements  of  houses  and  new  ma- 
terials for  construction  will  be  brought  to  public  attention.  Such 
a  competition  might  be  held  by  a  municipality  (as,  for  example, 
one  was  held  at  Sheffield,  England,  in  1907),  but  such  competi- 
tion could  be  held  with  equal  satisfaction  by  some  private  organi- 
zation (as,  for  example,  the  Rochester  and  the  Albany,  N.  Y., 
Chamber  of  Commerce  competitions).  It  is  in  experiments  of 
this  sort  that  private  organizations  can  do  their  best  work  in 
meeting  the  problem  of  promoting  suburban  housing.  The  cost 
of  cottage  construction  can  be  reduced  also  by  large  scale 
building;  buying  and  developing  several  acres  of  land  at  a  time. 
This  may  be  done  by  philanthropic  associations  (e.  g.,  "Home- 
wood  Community,"  built  by  the  City  and  Suburban  Homes  Co. 
of  New  York),  by  employers  of  labor,  by  commercial  building 
companies  or  by  co-operative  association  of  tenants. 

SECTION  VII— LOT  UNITS  AND  HOUSING. 
Existing  Size  and  Shape  of  Lots  in  Newark. 

At  present  the  Board  of  Public  Works  of  this  city  discour- 
ages in  the  suburbs  as  well  as  in  the  city  the  use  of  winding- 
streets  and  irregular  lots.  The  only  winding  streets  in  Newark 
are  Hinsdale  Place,  Renner  Avenue  and  Homestead  Park,  and 


LOT  UNITS  AND  HOUSING 69 

these  do  not  curve  for  more  than  a  block  or  two  of  their  length. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  there  are  real  advantages  in  having  streets 
straight  and  lots  of  uniform  shape.  There  are  few  "waste  cor- 
ners" on  such  lots.  Their  value  is  easily  ascertained.  They  are 
easily  described  and  recorded. 

The  prevailing  lot  in  Newark  is  approximately  25  feet  by 
100,  though  its  width  may  vary  from  15  feet  to  30  and  its  depth 
from  75  feet  to  120.  Most  of  the  lots  of  the  city  are  of  dimen- 
sions contained  within  these  limits.  There  are  exceptions  in  the 
form  of  very  deep  residential  lots,  as,  for  example,  at  Nos.  —  to 
—  Orchard  Street,  there  are  very  broad  lots  on  Clinton  Hill 
between  Madison  Avenue,  South  Thirteenth  Street,  Runyon 
Street  and  Seymour  Avenue ;  there  are  huge  lots  also  on  lower 
High  Street,  from  40  to  100  feet  wide  and  often  200  feet  deep. 
But  in  Wards  13,  14,  16  and  9,  lots  are  very  generally  of  approxi- 
mately 25  feet  in  width  by  100  feet  in  depth,  being  varied  only 
when  the  diagonals  of  the  city  cut  across  the  residential  gridiron 
streets. 

Types  Used  in  Recent  Subdivisions  in  Newark. 

The  land  development  companies  of  the  city  have  apparently 
accepted  this  shape  of  lot  and  consistently  employ  it  in  their 
development  schemes ;  for  example,  Newark  Park  on  Weequahic 
Avenue,  Clinton  Park  south  tract,  and  East  Orange  Terrace  on 
South  Orange  Avenue  all  make  use  of  a  lot  20  feet  by  100,  and 
comprise  altogether  about  800  lots  of  these  dimensions.  The 
lot  25  feet  by  100  has  been  employed  on  Clinton  Heights,  parts 
of  the  Weequahic  Park  tract,  on  Arsdale  Terrace,  and  East 
Orange  Terrace  on  South  Orange  Avenue.  Double  lots,  50  feet 
by  100,  have  been  used  on  the  Weequahic  Park  tract  for  expen- 
sive single-family  residences.  In  East  Orange  similarly  this 
same  type  of  lot  is  used,  though  fortunately  East  Orange  is  not 
completely  abandoned  to  the  gridiron  plan,  having  a  few  winding 
streets  and  irregular  lots. 

Disadvantages  of  Uniform  Type. 

There  are  several  serious  disadvantages  in  having  lots  of 
uniform  shape.  In  the  first  place  a  popular  prejudice  is  created 
for  the  deep  and  narrow  lot  which  is  not  easily  dislodged,  and 
the  poor  man  who  wishes  to  build  a  cottage  home  is  socially 
constrained  to  purchase  a  lot  100  feet  deep  whether  he  needs  so 
much  land  or  not.  It  is  perhaps  the  safest  thing  for  a  city  to 
have  standard  lots  at  least  in  the  heart  of  the  city  until  the 


70  THE  NEWARK  CITY  PLAN  COMMISSION 

science  of  lot  distribution  and  usage  "is  developed.  It  is  not  easy 
to  make  definitive  prescriptions  for  the  employment  of  lots  of 
any  other  specific  size  which  would  be  more  satisfactory  for  all 
purposes.  But  the  lack  of  elasticity  in  present  lot  shapes  and 
sizes  is  fraught  with  serious  consequences.  The  25  by  100  foot 
lot  cannot  be  used  economically  for  workingmen's  cottages.  It 
is  wasteful  of  land  at  the  rear  (the  American  workingman  will 
not  ordinarily  start  a  garden  as  will  the  English  or  Italian).  It 
is  parsimonious  of  land  at  the  sides  of  houses,  especially  if  built 
in  two-flat  style.  It  becomes  impossible  to  construct  two-flat 
houses  on  lots  of  this  shape  which  will  not  be  too  near  to  the  lot 
line  and  thus  to  neighboring  houses.  The  maintenance  of  the 
25  by  100  foot  lot  is  likely  to  make  Newark  a  city  of  tenements 
unless  the  undeveloped  land  of  new  sections,  including,  of  course, 
all  of  Newark's  contiguous  suburbs,  can  be  more  economically 
plotted. 

Recommended  Suburban  Street  and  Lot  Planning. 

If  the  arterial  streets  of  a  city  are  broad  and  sufficiently 
straight,  and  there  are  occasional  broad  cross  streets  within  the 
residential  zones,  it  should  be  possible  to  plan  much  of  the  re- 
maining residential  land  with  narrow  dirt  streets  for  local  ser- 
vice purely,  often  perhaps  with  one  sidewalk  or  none,  grass 
strips  and  trees  at  the  sides  and  a  building  line  for  houses  on 
abutting  lots.  These  streets  might  wind,  which  would  enhance 
their  beauty,  and  if  on  a  hillside,  ought  to  wind  in  some  accord- 
ance with  the  contour  lines  of  the  hill.  In  such  quarters  lots  of 
varying  shapes  and  sizes  would  be  possible. 

Recommended  Type  Near  Factories. 

Near  factory  quarters,  where  land  values  are  not  yet  pro- 
hibitive, the  Philadelphia  type  of  housing  might  be  promoted  by 
the  establishment  of  lots  even  down  to  14  to  16  feet  in  width 
and  perhaps  40  feet  in  depth  to  be  built  up  with  four-room  or 
six-room  cottages,  two  stories  in  height  with  brick  dividing  walls 
on  the  lot  line.  Houses  of  this  type  could  be  constructed 
available  even  for  the  families  of  day  laborers,  as  the  experience 
of  Philadelphia  has  proved.  Preferably,  if  this  type  of  house  is 
to  be  used,  builders  should  be  provided  by  some  competent 
authority  with  standard  plans  showing  types  of  construction 
that  are  cheapest  in  design  and  at  the  same  time  healthful  and 
varied  in  exterior.  Multiple  cottages  of  this  type  can  be  con- 
structed to  rent  or  to  sell.  Streets  may  be  narrow  without  dark- 


Shows    how    attractive    are    some    of   the    newer    parts    of   the    city    in    which 
homes  like  these  are  going   up  by  the  hundreds. 


Near  the  Belleville  line.  The  ungraded  street  and  neighboring  land  is 
rotten  with  garbage  and  refuse.  The  wretched  houses  are  damp.  Several 
of  these  shacks  lack  side  windows,  a  condition  seriously  reducing  the  amount 
of  light  and  ventilation  obtainable,  thereby  rendering  rooms  a  harboring 
place  for  disease  germs.  The  children  of  this  quarter  strikingly  show  the 
effect  of  their  environment.  At  the  time  the  photograph  was  taken  the 
children  were  more  rude  and  unmanageable  than  in  any  other  part  of  the 
city. 


LOT  UNITS  AND  HOUSING 


71 


ening  rooms,  but  provision  should  be  made  for  grass  strips  and 
trees  on  all  streets  of  this  character,  relieving  their  monotony  of 
type,  and  improving  the  air  for  the  semi-crowded  occupants. 

Suburban  Lots  Wider  and  Shallower. 

In  Vailsburg  and  in  the  outlying  portions  of  Newark's  con- 
tiguous suburbs,  both  straight  and  winding  streets  may  be  pro- 
vided, and  in  specific  quarters  lots  narrow  or  wide,  shallow  or 
deep,  may  be  accepted  according  to  the  prospective  use  of  the 
quarter.  In  general,  however,  the  narrow  lot  should  be  avoided 
in  such  suburbs,  and  the  permission  to  plot  deep  lots  might  be 
granted  if  the  city  guarded  the  right  to  push  a  minor  street 
through  the  middle  of  the  block  in  the  future.  Both  one  and 
two-family  houses  could  be  constructed  more  economically  and 
to  greater  social  advantage  on  lots  from  30  to  35  feet  in  width 
and  60  to  70  feet  in  depth  than  they  can  now  on  the  25  by  100 
foot  lot.  On  the  wider  lot,  as  specified,  houses  can  be  constructed 
with  square  floor  plan,  two  rooms  abreast  and  two  or  three 
rooms  deep,  reducing  somewhat  the  cost  of  construction,  the  cost 
of  heating,  and  the  cost  of  furnishing  such  homes.  Furthermore, 
the  lot  35  feet  by  60  in  dimensions  uses  400  square  feet  less  of 
land  than  the  lot  of  100  by  25  feet.  On  it  a  house  may  be  built 
with  two  rooms  of  ordinary  size  abreast  and  yet  leave  5  feet  on 
the  side  to  each  lot  line.  The  house  may  be  built  two  rooms  deep 
and  leave  a  10  foot  lawn  in  front  (insured  by  municipal  pro- 
vision for  a  building  line)  and  a  25  foot  yard  in  the  rear,  which 
may  be  encroached  upon  by  a  third  room  in  the  depth  of  the 
house  or  by  a  piazza,  or  may  be  used  as  a  garden.  The  only 
serious  disadvantage  of  this  lot  plan  lies  in  that  it  provides  for 
an  increased  street  frontage,  and  thereby  a  larger  cost  to  the 
owner  for  road  construction,  etc.  But  if  street  costs  in  residence 
sections  are  reduced  by  the  means  above  specified  (see  page  67), 
there  will  unquestionably  be  a  net  gain  to  society  from  the  use 
of  this  method. 

How  to  Make  the  Above  Pay. 

Irregular  lots  on  winding  streets  can  be  rendered  economical 
and  exceedingly  beautiful  if  developed  co-operatively  in  the  man- 
ner specified  on  page  66.  The  provision  of  playgrounds  in  the 
middle  of  the  block  or  of  allotment  gardens  to  be  leased  by  such 
tenants  as  desire  gardens  will  add  materially  to  the  beauty, 
healthfulness  and  naturalness  of  such  communities..  The  Brit- 
ish co-partnership  garden  suburbs  are  so  planned,  and  yet  are 
able  to  house  workingmen  at  current  rates.  This  general  sub- 


72  THE  JXEWARK  CITY  PLAN  COMMISSION 

ject  is  ably  treated  in  articles  by  F.  C.  Howe  and  by  Grosvenor 
Atterbury  in  the  July,  1912,  number  of  Scribner's  Magazine. 
(See  also  The  Width  and  Arrangement  of  Streets  by  Charles 
Mulford  Robinson  and  the  reports  and  plans  of  British  Garden 
Suburbs). 


CONCLUSION 

SECTION  I— MUNICIPAL  CONTROL  OF  HOUSING  AND 
CITY  PLANNING. 

Need  of  a  Permanent  City  Plan  Commission. 

If  your  city  is  to  determine  its  housing  development,  it  is 
essential  that  there  be  a  municipal  commission  empowered  to 
establish  the  building  zones  of  the  city,  to  pass  upon  and  if 
necessary  reject  plans  of  land  companies  for  estate  development, 
to  determine  also  the  direction,  width,  paving  and  planting  of 
new  streets,  with  power  to  inaugurate  schemes  and  enforce  its 
decisions  in  so  far  as  they  affect  vitally  the  welfare  of  the  com- 
munity. There  should  be  a  permanent  city  plan  commission  for 
metropolitan  Newark,  even  if  the  suburbs  of  the  city  are  not  all, 
as  they  should  be,  incorporated  within  the  political  city. 

Example  of  Europe. 

There  is  much  European  precedent  for  the  establishment  of 
such  commissions  with  power.  German  c"ities  are  so  provided. 
English  cities  under  the  town  planning  act  of  1909  may  secure 
power  to  regulate  the  method  and  extent  of  development  of  land 
likely  to  be  used  for  building  purposes  within,  or  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of,  their  area  (Section  54).  They  also  have  power  to 
limit  the  number  of  buildings  which  may  be  erected  per  acre  and 
the  height  and  character  of  those  buildings. 

American  Examples. 

In  America,  city  planning  powers  of  this  type  are  already 
being  given  by  provincial  governments  to  the  cities  of  Canada. 
In  Ontario,  for  example,  local  town  planning  commissions  have 
power  to  pass  on  all  lot  distribution  of  towns  of  50,000  inhabit- 
ants or  more,  and  cities  may  plan  for  the  area  within  five  miles 
of  their  limits.  No  lots  may  be  sold  until  such  plans  are  ap- 
proved. The  value  of  this  power  is  reduced  in  so  far  as  the 
promotion  of  workingmen's  suburban  homes  is  concerned  by  the 
requirement  that  all  streets  shall  be  at  least  60  feet  wide.  The 
provinces  of  western  Canada  have  given  quite  similar  power  to 
their  cities.  In  the  States,  like  powers  have  already  been  granted 
to  cities  in  Pennsylvania  and  Wisconsin.  And  that  power  under 


74          THE  NEWARK  CITY  PLAN  COMMISSION 

the  Wisconsin  law  regarding  the  platting  of  land  near  cities, 
adopted  in  1909,  extends  to  all  land  within  one  and  one-half  miles 
of  the  limits  of  such  city. 

SECTION    II— CO-OPERATION    OF    PRIVATE    BODIES 
Existing  Co-operation. 

Private  action  in  the  improving  of  housing  conditions  of 
Newark  has  been  limited  very  largely  to  the  occasional  reporting 
of  unsanitary  conditions  by  charitable  agencies,  the  recording 
of  housing  conditions  of  tuberculous  persons  in  a  somewhat 
general  way,  by  the  Anti-Tuberculosis  Association,  the  intensive 
investigation  of  housing  conditions  just  begun  by  the  Public 
Welfare  Committee,  and  to  the  work  of .  visiting  nurses  and 
visiting  housekeepers  in  educating  tenants,  these  persons  being 
employed  by  the  Associated  Charities,  Visiting  Nurse  Associa- 
tion and  Anti-Tuberculosis  Association.  There  are  a  few  agen- 
cies also  designed  to  encourage  the  beautification  of  tenements 
through  distributing  flowers,  window  boxes,  seeds,  etc.,  in  tene- 
ment house  sections. 

Employers  of  labor  have  not  made  wide  use  of  their  oppor- 
tunity to  construct  sanitary  homes  for  their  employees. 

The  Board  of  Trade  maintains  several  committees  interested 
in  matters  bearing  upon  the  housing  problem,  especially  its  com- 
mittees on  public  health,  taxation,  and  fire  hazard.  Of  these, 
the  first  and  last,  at  least,  have  contributed  reports  which  have 
helped  to  improve  the  local  housing  situation. 

Example  of  Cleveland  and  Boston. 

In  some  cities,  however,  boards  of  trade  have  taken  much 
more  active  interest  in  housing  problems  and  have  been  the  most 
progressive  and  enlightened  agents  for  housing  reform.  The 
Cleveland  Chamber  of  Commerce,  through  its  committee  on 
housing  conditions,  established  a  special  tenement  house  division 
in  the  local  health  department,  with  a  highly  trained  supervisor, 
Miss  Chadsey,  20  sanitary  patrolmen,  and  record  systems  of  high 
order.  It  is  now  engaged  in  promoting  a  State  Tenement  House 
act,  which  if  passed  will  be  one  of  the  best  of  its  kind  in  the 
country.  The  Boston  Chamber  of  Commerce  has  conducted 
some  very  interesting  investigations  in  methods  of  construction 
of  tenement  houses  and  in  fireproofing,  and  has  published  tables 
on  the  costs  of  erection  and  maintenance  of  houses  of  similar 
design,  built  of  various  materials. 


CO-OPERATION  OF  PRIVATE  BODIES 76 

What  Newark  Can  Do. 

Newark,  however,  is  in  especial  need  of  some  permanent 
housing  association  or  committee  which  will  create  and  represent 
the  enlightened  public  opinion  of  the  community.  The  local 
boards  of  health  and  building  will  prove  responsive  to  the  sug- 
gestions of  such  a  body.  Such  a  private  association  should  study 
local  conditions,  suggest  changes  in  laws  where  necessary,  super- 
vise public  departments  and  officials,  experiment  in  methods  of 
cheap  construction,  and  create  a  strong  public  opinion  for  the 
improvement  of  the  housing  conditions  of  all  citizens.  The 
Board  of  Trade  and  the  Public  Welfare  Committee  have  between 
them  the  necessary  qualifications  for  such  action — business 
sagacity  and  balance  on  the  one  hand,  insight  into  social  needs 
and  methods  on  the  other.  Through  co-operative  action  of  these 
agencies  a  live  sane  public  opinion  could  be  created  and  important 
results  achieved. 

NOTE : — No  names  or  street  numbers  are  given  in  this 
report,  but  all  data  from  which  this  report  was  written  is  on  file 
at  the  City  Plan  Commission  rooms. 


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APR  11 1917 

• 
DEC  1  'HW 

*  1120 

r  00  \o?8 


The  City  Plan  Commission 


709   FIREMEN'S  BUILDING 

Newark,  New  Jersey 


JACOB  HAUSSLING 
MAYOR 


Population  (Census  1910)  347,469 

Total  Taxable  Valuations  Year   1912        -        $383,864, 1 1 2 


MEMBERS  OF  THE  COMMISSION 

DAVID  GROTTA,  President 
AUSTIN  H.  McGREGOR,  Vice-Pre8ident 
JOHN  COTTON  DANA 
CHRISTIAN  W.  FEIGENSPAN 
FREDERICK  J.  KEER,  Treasurer 
GUSTAVUS  STAEHLIN 
JOSEPH  M.  BYRNE 
RICHARD  STOCKTON 


ROBERT  L.  ROSS,  Secretary 


